Broken Universe: Fate Saga
by dragonridley
Summary: Universe 3. After the destruction of Unicron, Chad, one of the two who slayed the planet eater now must face further battles against those who control mortals fate, the deities, as well as others who intend to destroy him and those he cares for.
1. A Dark Soul:Aftermath

Alright, Disclaimer time:

I, dragonridley, do not own ANY of the characters apart from Richard Wily, Roll Bullen and Diamas Link.

Chad Oswald, Anna Hael/Keene and Lucy Valentine belong to Keyblader Chad

Blue Hikari and Slashman from the story 'Megaman NT Warrior SP' belong to Blue The Hedgehog

Any background stories of the characters that is not canon is purely made up for this story.

Not all events that all the characters have had in their canon backstories have happened in this alternative universe. (e.g Lan and Megaman have never faced the cybeasts greiga and falzer, and the events with duo have not happened. Another example is that for Dynasty Warriors, only up to the battle of Guan Du occurred and a majority of the characters are alive as it's more petty feuds then outright war)

In short, this is non-canon to any of the games and movies the cast comes from.

All characters other than those named in the first three points are copyrighted and belong to their rightful owners.

All of the characters will be OOC...not all the time though, just...more often than not.

Right, I'm sure I've got my back covered once again...let's get on with this sequel.

* * *

In Universe 3. There was a deity, a being who serves the creator god of this Multiverse, gifted with might that was unique to his people.

He cared for no mortal life and mocked those who only lived for barely a hundred, whilst he could live forever. He fought all to came to him, those who hear of his might. And each one suffers the fate of death by his hands.

Then one day, a young boy came to his land. He sought a blade that had been placed here centuries ago by a Leviathan, a being that comes from a time before the deity was even alive. The deity watched the boy, interested why someone so young and so inexperienced with combat would step into his place.

As the boy approached the sword he sought, the deity comforted him and attempted to destroy the mortal before he could take the sword.

But the boy fought back. He got passed the deity and raised the sword from it's rocky tomb. He used it and battled the deity from sunrise to sunset. The deity had never encountered anyone like this before, someone completely unfamiliar with the standards of combat, who would constantly adjust and change his tactics on a dime to suit the current situation or to completely place it on its head.

The deity ended their battle. He praised the mortal and asked him for his name.

The boy was called Primus. Primus Oswald. A boy who would become a legend that would never be forgotten.

From there he followed the boy, knowing he would meet others, new opportunities for enemies to fight. A group of people formed around this Primus, and they ventured the stars, facing odds that the normal mortal would deem impossible.

They took out demon lords, tyrants, military armies, giants, machines, rival deities…even a giant machine planet destined to consume others known as Unicron. They stopped it all and with all of them, the deity found enjoyment.

There seemed to be no force that could stop them.

He called Primus his sworn brother. He even wanted to give his daughter's hand to Primus for marriage. He saw no one worthier.

But other deities and those around them were not so happy with the legendary hero and his comrades.

Primus had made many enemies. In his older years, he had become more destructive, more brutal in his methods and ways. Something the deity enjoyed that others were not so impressed with. They had lost the Primus that was merciful and caring, and instead had one that killed for almost the sake of a rush of emotions, the thrill of battle.

Soon it had caught up to them. The people of the Universe grew tired of Primus. They tried a peaceful method to oust him…but that led to him uprising against the controlling state known as Pararela and killing many of its commanding members before withdrawing his forces.

They tried to rally new heroes to push Primus out of the worlds he commanded, but those heroes either perished or defected upon fighting the man, as they wanted a part of his glory and victories.

They tried money and wealth to keep Primus satisfied. But they knew it was for nothing whenever there was conflict, as Primus and those around him would arrive to end the fighting in their own careless and ruthless way.

They knew there was only on solution left. To go to war with Primus and bring him down. Whilst it was difficult at first with the sheer amount of people who stood with Primus, as the months past worlds that bowed to Primus were taken back, and people were defecting as Primus showed no care nor compassion to those around him, refusing to supply his men or to give them rousing hope for a victory, only simply going out there for the flow of battle.

Now they were pushed into a corner, their main homeworld was recently taken over by the advancing forces of Pararela. With nowhere else to go, Primus led his followers to attack one world after another, looking for one that will yield to him once again.

Reckless and aimless, the worlds suffered. Primus was now like the monsters he had once ventured around the galaxies to defeat.

They found a techno-organic planet that had been colonised called Cybertron and managed to take over three major fortresses that were set up close to one another, those who worked in these locations bowed to Primus with little quarrel, out of fear of death.

As soon as it was found out that Primus was once again active, the armies of Pararela moved in, this time to end it once and for all.

On the pathway of one of the mighty mountainous steel walls of one of the fortresses, looking down to the hundreds of thousands of men, women and creatures gathered to attack them whilst his men are running around getting themselves prepared, was a familiar warrior that wore silver armor, and out of his silver helmet, were two long red feathers that flowed down his back.

Lu Bu stood there, arms folded, surveying the scene…in this time, he name was Feng Xian.

Snow was coming down on them, the sky was grey and cloudy…it had been snowing for several days on this blue and green machine tinted world. He was especially right now watching two distinct figures in the vast armies.

Beerus, the god of destruction, who was scratching his nose and trying to ignore the snow, and a man who he had a medium neat brown goatee, slick back brown hair with hints of white, and his skin was a peachy colour. He wore a white silk robe lined with gold cotton, and his eyes were as if black voids, with specks of stars in them. Fate.

One of his black armoured knights had suddenly ran up to where he stood, bowing. "Commander Feng Xian! Base Maximus is under attack! Lord Arthas and lady Jaina are struggling to hold out!"

Feng Xian glanced at the knight, then looked over to Beerus, who he noticed even from his distance, was clearly smirking now. "I understand." As the messenger left him, he motioned to two other knights that were carrying his mighty weapon, the lunar spear, and made them walk to him carrying it.

"Feng Xian please wait! Wait just a moment!" The person that suddenly spoke up to him appeared in his vison, stopping the armoured knights from handing him his spear.

This man would later be known as Chen Gong. In this time, he was called "Gongtai, what is it now?"

The sleazy looking man, carrying decent sized scroll of bamboo, was a wizard that served on one of Primus' old worlds and was regarded as their top adviser on military tactics…though lately both Primus and Feng Xian had both grown annoyed with his planning as it hindered their need for combat. "It's clear that the enemy force will be much more prepared for us to counterattack any assault they unleash. In order to take them down and still hold on to what we have, we must be ready for anything!"

"We have you, myself, Primus, Thor and Odin. That is all we need." With that, Feng Xian moved past Gongtai and grabbed his spear.

"Y-yes but you must listen! I believe this is a ploy to divide our forces further apart! I think we should send our forces to Taraqin and see what the enemy are planning from afar! It has the vantage point for us to look at Maximus if it truly is under heavy attack!"

"There's no need my friend. Feng Xian will take out the attacking forces with what we have."

Walking up the steps to join them, was a warrior in glistening red and gold armor from his feet to his neck, wearing a thin red bandanna across his forehead, with his famous weapon the Blade of Darkness in one hand and in the other a cursed weapon that belonged to his fallen friend turned enemy Fenrir, the Dark Wolf. A man who looked in his forties, with a neat trimmed goatee, medium brown hair and deep blue coloured irises.

Primus Oswald. "Thor and Odin will defend Taraqin. I myself will protect here, Sepulchre. Gongtai, I want you to go with Feng Xian to Maximus and make sure it doesn't fall to enemy hands. The enemy are already moving in between each location to cut us off. Carve through them and show them that no one can stand up to true heroes of the Universe such as ourselves."

Feng Xian bowed with respect. "Of course Primus. I shall not fail you!"

* * *

I shall not fail you…

Those words echoed within the mind of Lu Bu as he had his eyes closed. Though that day occurred over three million years ago, he could remember it like it was yesterday, so vividly and so clear…

"That was the last time I saw the Dark Wolf, prior to it's arrival at the Hero Base. I do not know what happened to it once Primus fell on that day. My focus was solely on him, not the swords he carried."

He opened his eyes.

Before him, was a magnificent blue sky with white pure small clouds hovering around. Pillars upon pillars made of gold, the flooring and roof made of silver, the table and chairs that he many others right now sat around in this open air location, a white marble. The sun was a half black, half white, yet still gave off golden rays down towards them. The air was cool, and crisp, and running down the middle of the rooms was a little stream of clear water, coming from the fountains located in the main chambers of what they called, their game.

Each of them had a golden chalice and jug, filled with a liquid of their choosing, silver platters of all kinds of colourful food and exotic meats laid out, and in the middle of this table, was a small platinum statue of an owl, it's wings unfolded, looking up to the sky. A statue of the creator god of the Multiverse, Azrael.

This was the realm of the deities. It housed all those that were chosen by god, as well as those they, the deities themselves, had ascended to the same position as them.

Deities were mostly once mortals who were granted the immortal souls of the primal beings of this Multiverse known as Leviathans, though there are some that were born with both a mortal soul and a Leviathan soul at the start of the Universe, or more precise, this cycle of the Universe.

The deities were aware of the times that had passed before their existence, the last cycles. It was one of the first things they are informed about to make them aware that one day, as Azrael will decide, the Multiverse will be wiped clean and made anew once again.

Sat around this table with Lu Bu, were many of the deities who were involved with the time of Primus and what he had done, as well as the current time and events.

In one direction there was:

Lu Lingqi, his daughter and a proud warrior like himself.

Kefka, a mage who wore all kinds of colourful clothing and was known for his constant use of powerful magic.

Sephiroth, the man who became his own legend within the Universe, feared for his skills.

Slur, a female deity that had recently taken a form of a Net Navi, standing tall behind her, several times the height of humans, matching the transformers, was a cybernetic being named Duo, also a deity.

Then there was Chronoa, a guest deity from Universe 1 that was known as the guardian of time.

And finally there was Fate, sitting there with his arms crossed, listening to everything carefully.

In the other direction: Zuo Ci was sitting beside Lu Bu, looking at his tarot cards.

Gabriel sipped from his chalice, a deity who had once been at war with the child of Azrael, Ingrid.

Akuma, a warrior who was ascended from Earth X only a good fifty years ago after proving his worth to Sephiroth.

Castiel, a deity who appeared the most human out of all of the deities' present, wearing a white striped shirt, black suit and a beige trench coat.

Palutena sat beside him, a fair maiden with green hair.

Lady Luck, a woman with black hair, pale skin with white eyes wearing a silver robe was glancing over at Fate.

Behind the people on this side of the table, standing at one of the pillars with his back leaning on it, was the deity Janos Audron, who had come from Universe 1 to join this meeting as he was a constant visitor to each Universe.

Finally, opposite of Lu Bu was the current leader of the high-ranked deities, having replaced the late Beerus after his fall so long ago. Blind Io. Who had a white beard and hair, a woven cloth covering his eye sockets, and eight human like eyes with faint golden auras floating around him.

Palutena had spoken up after Lu Bu. "In the aftermath of the great battle, the sword was not around where he fell. Zuo Ci?"

The old wise deity looked up from his cards. "Primus did have it on him when we met face to face. After he fell I placed the weapon within the Farside as instructed, along with the Blade of Darkness."

Blind Io's eyes looked over at Zuo Ci. "And there was no hint of chaotic energy?"

"No my lord."

The eyes then focused on Chronoa. "Do the scrolls of time show when the sword was twisted and this, being, came from Oblivion?"

Chronoa looked to them all. "In actual fact, the sword has always been twisted. All four Dark Wolf's were connected to a Leviathan soul that was trapped in the abyss. Vul Grohiik. He was trapped in a metal sphere collected by the deity Smith when it was found on the corpse of one of the ancient leviathans called Dis. It was handed to Azrael who got Smaug to forge the blades."

"All four went to different universes, and in each cycle Vul Grohiik would serve a certain collection of beings as guided by Azrael…He had been doing so in this cycle untill a few hundred years ago, then the scrolls refuse to show anymore."

"Refuse to show anymore?" Janos was intrigued by that.

"It's more that, it hasn't been recorded in time. Something has halted our powers to collect the moments in time with Vul Grohiik. That means something dangerously powerful. Chaotic energy can be an interference. But what the being we're discussing is, is something more than that. He came from oblivion."

"The ending realm of the soul." Castiel sounded a little surprised. "That's suppose to be the prison of those deemed unworthy of life after death and those with damaged souls."

Chronoa nodded. "That's correct. There isn't supposed to be way to escape. But this one did it. And so did another, and they summoned more from the lands of the dead back to the living. He gave us a name for what he was. Corrupted. We've made it the name of anyone with chaotic energy and has seen the streams of time itself, as is given to those before they are erased entirely by Death."

"How is it that something in Oblivion gets a free pass back while I had to wait for one of you to strike a deal with Death to trade a part of your Leviathan soul to let me respawn back into the living?" Kefka had died once, at the hands of his fellow deities during the time of Primus. Sephiroth had spoken with Death to bring the deity back.

"Well, despite a lack of knowledge of exactly when this thing got into the Dark Wolf and assumed control, it has clearly now revealed itself and altered everything of our previous game. We had to scrap it." Blind Io looked annoyed at the thought of that.

The deities, especially those of high ranks, liked to play the game called 'Destiny', where they would form a board with mortals as playing pieces, and use them to see which deity backing which mortal would come out on top. The game takes centuries to set up correctly and requires careful planning and scheming to enjoy fully.

When two rival pieces meet on the board, each deity rolls a set of dice to determine the outcome. When decided the deities send the lesser ones to join in, or grant powers to their pieces, or even lured other pieces towards the two. They enjoy the games very much, and the most recent, which had Unicron included, was going to have Blind Io and Fate directly partake. They were going to take on the playing pieces for their amusement.

They intended a new Oswald to play up to be the next Primus, a mortal that had an unusually high level of power. Fate was to try first, and if he lost, Blind Io would go next, knowing he couldn't possibly lose to a mortal.

But it all went to shit the moment Unicron got destroyed. A playing piece of Blind Io's went rogue, moving by itself and ignoring the dice entirely. Before he knew it, he lost one of his playing pieces, and another had to be changed to a different side in order to try and subdue this rogue piece, which soon vanished off the board and was replaced by a small purple crystal.

Chronoa did not approve of the game, but understood it was something that had to exist, as it was approved by Azrael. "Yes, and while you high rankers are busy creating a new game, where is the one from oblivion?"

Fate looked over to Zuo Ci. "Someone let the mortals take it prisoner."

Zuo Ci humbly bowed. "Forgive me, but I was to assume the game was still on. I believed that despite the interference, you would all take command from there once it was isolated. Perhaps control it."

Lady Luck looked annoyed at that. "We cannot control something that knows everything Zuo Ci. Best to destroy it while we have the chance. We should inform Ingrid at once and get her to use the Azrael Core to wipe it out!"

Duo finally spoke. "That is not possible. It is able to hide from our senses as it is from the realm where it was supposed to die. We have been 'tuned out' so to speak, so as far as we can detect, it isn't there unless it's directly in front of us. Ingrid will not approach the location of where her father resides to try and hunt for it."

"Lord Azrael is still on Earth X?" Palutena asked.

Sephiroth nodded a little. "Yes he is. He remains in the same location as the Oswald boy. I believe one day he will depart from there and head to another Universe, but it seems he is settled at the moment. He will not tolerate Ingrid's presence at this time, and vice versa for herself. I believe the influence of Ronni is to blame…or the fact Ingrid has her own motives now."

"She is the daughter of our creator. She is free to do as she is fit. Beerus learnt the hard way in trying to contain her." Blind Io reminded them. "We must adjust the next game around her plans…If only I still had Chaos."

Gabriel looked to him, and at Fate. "Well…'Chaos' is still around, per se. His body has been repaired but it's the being within him now in control, and it's a little more uncooperative than Chaos. I believe the incident has shaken it."

Blind Io thought on this for a moment, before smiling a little. "Then perhaps the game was not as lost as we thought. We can still proceed, so long as we try to avoid that thing interfering again." He formed in his hand, showing it to the others, a small black chess piece that looked like a human, with twelve Zerg claws out of it's back. "One of my vital pieces might've been taken from me." He crushes it into dust. "But we can still have the destiny we have formulated for the Oswald boy."

* * *

There as a volcanic eruption, fire, ash and smoke rapidly rising high up into the sky, the ground shaking violently, rivers of molten lava rushing out of the mountain.

Ryu Masters stood on a raised platform of dirt as the glowing river of fire flowed around him. He jumped into the air, spinning around with his leg out, striking an enemy that was in his way, knocking them close to the edge.

That was Knuckles the echidna. He readied his fists as Ryu landed close to him. "I see you still got some spirit left despite watching your pal Ken fall in! Bring it on!"

Ryu rushed forward, avoiding the few strikes Knuckles tried with his fists, before he found himself being uppercutted right on the chin, sending him upwards as the martial artist yelled "SHORYUKEN!"

Following up, Ryu waited as Knuckles was stumbling back down and with one swift kick, the red echidna yelled out as he was sent flying into the lava, disappearing in a flash of flames.

Ryu looked at where Knuckles had disappeared into. He assumed it was now all over, that was the last one.

But as he heard behind him, wood tapping on the ground, that was not the case. It was followed by a male voice speaking to him. "Well now, it's down to you and me Ryu."

The warrior turned and faced his last opponent.

Pang Tong.

"…I see. You have managed to last this long despite the odds."

The Shu kingdom Strategist chuckled as he rubbed his back with his green wooden staff. "Well I have a few tricks up my sleeve. You'd be surprised how easy it was to keep back and watch you all fight to the death…Shame I now have to pick off the last one in my way. So? Shall we?" He got his staff ready, glaring at Ryu.

The fighter responded by shouting out "HADOKEN!" spewing forth from his hands large blue fireballs that Pang Tong had to quickly avoid, rolling to the side after each one before spotting Ryu getting close and trying to whack the fighter with his staff to no luck.

Ryu punched him in the stomach, kicked him in the face before grabbing the strategist's shoulders and tossing him over his own, causing the member of the Shu kingdom to land close to the edge feeling the unbelievable heat of the lava and stare at it for a moment, before quickly getting himself up and turning to face Ryu again.

Ryu had jumped high into the air, heading towards Pang Tong ready to kick him right in the chest and send him flying off the platform…But Pang Tong had gambled on Ryu jumping towards him. "Gotcha!"

Pang Tong spun his staff around once before pointing it at Ryu, causing a green energy wave that was like a powerful gust of wind to strike Ryu and cause him to be spun over and over, struck in mid-air for a brief time, having no clue what the hell is now going on.

As he stopped spinning and started to fall, the last thing he saw was Pang Tong on his staff, standing on it like it was a surf board and flying directly at him.

He slammed into Ryu with the top part of his staff as well as his hands and the warrior shouted out in pain as he flew off the platform, splashing into the molten lava and disappearing.

Pang Tong flew higher up, before getting off his staff and grabbing it, landing on the platform with ease, looking relieved. "It's always the one you least expect."

The volcano and the molten lava slowly rising around Pang Tong, the whole scene, was suddenly covered in numerous blue outlines of squares, before it vanished in a blink of an eye.

The hologram room had turned off the simulation, with all of those that were defeated sitting nearby one of the walls. There was Knuckles and Sonic, both from the world of Mobius, Ryu and Ken Masters, both once street fighter tournament participants, Xiahou Dun and Zhang Liao from the same world as Pang Tong known as Earth V, Jak and Daxter from the world known as Bara'Dor II, and finally Captain Falcon, an F-Zero racer hailing from a planet known as Port Town one of the main trading points of the galactic force currently in power, Shinra Federation.

Daxter, sitting on Jaks shoulder looked particularly dumbstruck at Ryu. "It's a hobo! A hobo! You were like one before you came here right!? You should know how he works!"

Ryu just stared at the Ottsel. "…I was a traveller, I did not need a home."

"Like a hobo!"

Ken nodded a little in agreement. "To be honest Ryu, he is kinda correct."

"Don't side with him." Ryu quickly responded with.

"Hey you lost to the smelly one, not me. I had that furball climbing all over my face before I got kicked in the lava by Jak."

"AND SPEAKING OF, ASSHOLE!" Daxter had changed his focus to Jak, who tried to look away and pretend to whistle to no avail.

A being known as a Net Navi was passing by the entrance way to the hologram room as he heard Jak yell out and yell at Daxter to stop hitting him.

This was the dark soul being known as Darkmega, a copy of the Net Navi Megaman. He smiled a little as he heard the commotion and continued on.

All these folk resided on a planet known as Earth X, the place they existed in was called the Hero Base, a building designed for those that wanted a place to live beyond their own world and to allow the owners of the location, Dr Wily and Dr Light, a better grasp at the type of heroes and villains that exist out in the galaxy and to see which ones were willing to cooperate and co-exist peacefully.

At least that was what it was made for.

Now it was a haven for those who wanted to escape the Shinra Federation direct control. It had now been classed as a faction of its own and was given some freedoms that the Federation wouldn't normally allow otherwise. It's whole situation permanently changed over 2 years ago when Darkmega appeared here and caused an uprising.

From there they got pulled into dealing with the ancient planet eater known as Unicron and partake in the civil war that kicked off within the Shinra Federation with it's old controlling force, the Galactic Federation.

It led to them sending their people to the planet known as Earth V and partaking in a rapid revolution that brought the end to the planet's controlling force, the Han kingdom.

That was now over 3 months ago.

The base had yet to recover its numbers that had been lost during the conflict. Twenty one of it's members perished, mostly those who came from Earth V, and a further eight had left the Hero Base shortly after. Four of them, Mario, Luigi, the Net Navi Gylde and his operator Yai Ayanokoji did not sign up for what had gone down recently.

Two additional Net Navi's left, Fireman and Elecman, because they found their operators on Earth V and wished to return to their side.

A member of Earth V, a man named Guo Tu chose to depart due to the changing forces on his home planet.

Finally, Miles 'Tails' Prower had been sent away and no longer classed as a member. It was found out by the Shinra Federation that he had worked behind the Hero Base and their back by helping the Galactic Federation create the blueprints for cloning test subjects. The docs, fearing the leader of the SF, Rufus Shinra would want the Mobian arrested, told Tails to leave while he still could. He returned to Mobius, not to be heard from since.

While the base had lost members, it gained elsewhere.

The planet Cybertron was officially a part of their faction now. After helping with the civil war and the planet eater, Rufus allowed both the Autobots and Decepticons to reform their ranks and return home, at the suggestion of a man from Earth V.

Both sides of the machines agreed to remain in contact with the Hero Base group and declare themselves a part of it, thus their world now belongs to them. Rufus was pleased that Cybertron remain under his thumb, to a certain extent.

On Cybertron there once was the remains of Unicron. They had been extracted and taken to Gaia VII, just east of it's capital Midgar. They were slowly being dissected down for any useful material and information, whilst also remaining as a personal trophy for Rufus.

On Earth V the Hero Base Faction now had a strong political position, as the new emperor of the world Yuan Shao, lived in their base, along with three of the kings of that world; Cao Cao, Ma Chao and Sun Ce.

And besides a recent loss of their base on the planet Zebes, they still had a few other bases that were now active, giving them homes on other planets. The Zebes base was bombed by a rival faction known as Shadowlaw and was currently a wrecked location deemed too dangerous to explore. Dr Wily and Light hope someday they can return to it and if not to rebuild it, to at least continue gathering minerals and supplies off that world.

Darkmega during these three months, had settled down to a routine in this place. He was currently heading to what was known as the local watering hole of this place, Ridley's bar. There the ex-space pirate Ridley stood behind his bar, with several tables around the place with some of those living here gathered around, having a drink and a chat.

Samus and Shadow were seen sitting at the bar, With Samus looking over to a new feature that had been added to the place…a decent sized disco dance floor, complete with lights and a disco glittering ball. She struggled to comprehend it. Shadow was quietly sipping some glowing orange small drink, speaking to Ridley.

Ridley soon spotted Darkmega and motioned him to come over and take a seat, quickly telling Shadow they'll continue chatting later and coming over. "Hey kid. What'll it be this time?"

"Just a coke will do. Waiting for Medi."

"Ah, she should be off shift soon if my clock is correct…" He looked at the clock placed above his bar, which showed it was five to eight in the evening. "You always come early."

"Yeah, well, I haven't got much else to do. The hologram rooms are being taken up, and I don't feel the need to train in the training rooms so…"

"Fair enough." Ridley dived under the bar, his tail sticking upwards. "So, any news on him?"

Darkmega sighed, looking at the wood and rubbing his finger on it slightly. "No. He's still the same. Still in the hospital, coming out only to go to bed late at night…the docs don't know how to tell him it's time to let go."

Ridley came up with a small bottle of coke, handing it to Darkmega and popping off the bottlecap. "200 gil." As Darkmega handed him the money. "Well I can understand how hard it is to let go. Does he know if they do the reset, she'll come back?"

"I don't know. The moment he heard reset he stopped listening to them and hid away in the hospital. And it's not as simple as that Ridley. She, the Navi he knew, won't be there. It'll be a new Navi, new set of personality programming based on what it sees and does…it won't be her for him. He can't accept that after the shit that went down."

"Speaking of…seen the prisoner?" Ridley quietly asked.

Darkmega shook his head. "I have no intention of going near him. He goes to see the asshole once in a while, they talk, then he quickly heads back to the hospital. Dr Light and Wily are content he can't leave."

"Let's hope so. I don't need to see this place get any emptier…heck I know we got new people, that Freya Crescent rat girl, Terra the Keyblade guy, Ma Chao, but compared to our losses..."

Darkmega nodded and started drinking his coke, when his girlfriend walked in, the Net Navi known as Medi, smiling as she joined him at the bar. "Hey good looking."

Darkmega was glad she was here. "Hey beautiful. Everything okay with you?"

"Yeah. I got Shademan to go and get some food for my permanent resident in the hospital while I come to see you. So, wanna try that new dance floor?"

* * *

 _"Well, I should've guessed you would come and see me pal…so Chad, how have you been after two long years?"_

 _"…Richard…something's possessed your mind. Don't make me kill you to stop you…"_

 _They were in the pouring rain of Crateria, on the planet known as Zebes. One person was a boy of seventeen years of age, carrying a grey leather holder, designed to carry his sword. He short brown slightly spiky hair with dark blue eyes, a red T-shirt, a black sleeveless jacket with blue trousers and white trainers. He carried a short sword that was named the Blade of Darkness._

 _This was Chad Oswald._

 _Opposite of him, carrying a long sword which had a dark purple aura around it, imbedded on its black hilt a picture of a wolf's head, was a person around the age of 19, wearing a black jacket, black trousers, black trainers and a blue shirt. With short brown hair with a slightly long fringe, brown eyes and slightly pale skin. Was his once friend now enemy._

 _Richard Wily._

 _Richard was smiling a little and laughed before turning around to face Chad. "Chad…maybe you should think about this…maybe you should come with me and Darkmega…I've been sent to kill you, but you'll be much more useful alive then dead…you had skill back then, skill that caught me by surprise. We can put it to good use, by giving you a dark chip."_

 _For a brief moment Chad saw an image flash by his eyes…an image of fragments of clothing, of his old enemy, Chaos, pointing a hand at the fragments._

 _Chad clenched his fist, trying to focus on the fight. "Join you! Join those working with Chaos…Join those that want to kill the people of the base…Richard, your being controlled. I would never join the likes of those that make others forcefully work for them!"_

 _Richard closed his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. "Well, at least I tried, it was nice meeting you again." he turned around and started walking off._

 _"….." Chad relaxed a little, guessing that Richard wasn't going to attack him…and again another image passed by him, an hourglass shattering._

 _Before Chad knew what was going on, Richard had him by the throat, slowly lifting him off the ground. Chad could feel the grip getting tighter and tighter. Richard was more powerful now then the last time they met, Chad understood that clearly now…his power…he felt the darkness around Richard, as his feet left the ground. "gga…ugh…urk.."_

 _Richard was giving an evil smirk, as he choked Chad. "Don't ever let your guard down."_

 _Another flash of an image, and there was Net Navi on her knees, wearing pink and black with blonde hair…and a Zerg claw sticking into the back of her head as she stared at him in shock._

 _Chad tried to raise a fist to punch Richard and make him let go, but he felt his strength fade away fast._

 _"Shame you refused the offer. This is the quickest death I can give you Chad, be thankful you don't have to suffer torture beforehand. Heh…"_

 _The next image was of that Navi again, on a hospital bed, in a cold room, eyes closed, not moving._

 _Chad heard the click of a gun, and a bullet being fired. Richard quickly used his spare hand to trigger a barrier chip for him and Chad and stopped the bullet, before disabling it and turning around a little to see the daring person that shot at him._

 _Standing there in the distance, with short brown hair, emerald green eyes, wearing a light blue T-shirt and dark blue jeans and white trainers, looking about 17 herself, with her pistol aimed at Richard, was Anna Hael._

 _Richard grinning darkly at her, before focusing on Chad. "Well well…sweet little Anna…"_

 _She kept her gun aimed right at Richard's head. "Let go of Chad you bastard!"_

 _Chad looked at her, horrified, as Richard raised his hand, aiming it towards Anna as she stood there._

 _Chad felt his strength was picking back up now. "ANNA!" He was fighting against the grip Richard had on him._

 _But it wasn't enough, he didn't have the strength to get out of it._

 _Out of Richard's hand, fired a dozen large strands of flesh known as Zerg veins…piercing into Anna's stomach, chest and head as her arms and legs went limp, her eyes widened in horror as blood leaked from each impalement point._

" _NO! NO NO NO!" Chad was frantically trying, he was desperate to escape, tears rushing out of his eyes._

 _But he couldn't._

 _Slowly Richard made the veins lift Anna upwards. "Look Chad. Look at the girl you loved. The girl you cherished so much, taken away—" with that Richard made the veins pull away from eachother…tearing Anna into chunks after she gave a brief scream. "—By your own actions and failures."_

 _Chad was yelling, kicking, pulling on Richards arm. "YOU BASTARD! YOU BASTARD GIVE HER BACK! GIVE HER BAAACK! ANNA!"_

 _Richard then started to change. Out of his back came out twelve Zerg claws, glowing a sinister purple…before his entire body morphed. The middle of Richard from his head to his stomach seemed to snap open with the sound of bone breaking and flesh tearing, now with two glowing bright purple eyes, the skin twisted into a blackened purple colour, the teeth within the divided mouth having grown several times in length into sharp fangs, the rib cage sharpened up into jagged fangs themselves._

 _Before Chad now as Richard held onto him, was a void within this massive maw dripping with black liquid. But slowly out of it, covered mostly in that substance, was an hourglass, the glass segment shattered apart, only fragments remain along with a little bit of the sand…and the name on it, written in blood…_

 _Was Anna Hael._

" _Isn't it time you followed after her?" Richard's voice spoke from within the void…as Chad was slowly brought towards it, struggling with all his life, staring only at the hourglass almost trying to get away from it more then the imminent death he faced._

" _Stop it! PLEASE STOP IT! I DIDN'T WANT TO! I NEVER WANTED HER-"_

"Chad? CHAD!"

Chad bolted awake. His hair and clothing were dishevelled, his skin a little pale, black bags were under his eyes and he was beginning to grow a beard.

He was in the side room of the Hospital area of the base. Darkened and with cold air flowing through it, with only a handful of lights, and the glowing screen of a computer nearby.

He had just been resting his head over the hand of the Navi he was looking after. Roll. He honestly thought for a few seconds that it was her that woke him from his nightmare.

But she remained still, on the verge of being lifeless.

She never recovered from the battle within the head of Unicron. Richard had destroyed her memories somehow and damage a majority of her programming. Whilst the docs had fixed up most of the programs, they told him there was no way to bring back memories which just aren't there. There was no evidence of them, no files to restore.

She was effectively brain dead.

Chad had turned to Maylu Sakurai, Roll's Operator to see if she had a backup.

She didn't. She was planning to make a new backup after deleting the old one about a week after the Unicron head incident. But now that's pointless.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over to his right.

The Net Navi Shademan stood there, with a metal tray in his other hand. "You were mumbling again."

Chad looked away from him, back at Roll.

"You said about giving her back."

"It's just a nightmare. What's wrong?" Chad responded with, his voice a little raspy from a lack of fluids.

Shademan handed him the tray which he looked down at. Which had a metal plate with breast of roasted chicken, peas, carrots and chips. Next to it was a bottle of water. "Medi got you the usual."

"She hasn't clicked I don't veg."

"Yes she has. But she insists you eat it anyway."

"…" Chad grabbed the chicken breast, still slightly hot, and took a bite out of it, not bothering with the knife and fork.

"…I'll see you another time as always." Shademan turned and left the room.

Chad ate his fill, leaving the peas and carrots alone. He placed the tray down at the side of the bed and drank the water.

To him he knew what time it was with this meal.

It's been a week now as well. He cursed himself. It was time for THAT check up. "Roll…I've gotta go and see to him again. I'll won't be long, I promise."

* * *

He knew the place would be quieter now. There was no soul around the main room as he headed off down the corridors. He soon found the room that contained his second task.

As he was about to go in though, he noticed something was standing there, waiting for him yet again.

Dr Richard Wily. Or now known as just Dr Richard. Now the other him was locked away, he could use his whole name instead of Dr Rich. He stood there in a black lab overcoat, blue buttoned top and black trousers and shoes. Over one of his eyes was a monocle like the rest of his family wore. He was in his ex-Navi, Burnermans armor before. But now being a member of this base, Wily and Regal agreed he needed a more normal attire and to use the armor only in combat.

His appearance facial wise was really close to Richard, except his light blue eyes, an aftereffect of being part-Navi. "Knew you'd be here again. Same time, same day."

"Dr Richard. I'm paying him a visit."

"You're giving him someone to taunt and mock. You always come out angered." Dr Richard folded his arms. "Even I don't go in there and I used to have the urge to kill the bastard before we all got pulled together."

"…" Chad opened the door, but didn't step in yet. "Do you listen in?"

"No. It's not my business. I just wanted to talk to you about Roll and what gramps wants—"

"Good." With that, Chad entered the room and closed the door.

Dr Richard sighed in frustration "Seems about right. Better head back to the labs."

Chad walked into the darkened room. It was more of a small hallway. Before him was an extra reinforced door with a tiny window on it. To his right and left were several computers placed around. He went to one of them. It gave him access to the cameras to look into the room beyond the door.

The quarantine room was now accepted as a prison after all this time to the docs' annoyance. For one person only.

Richard still sat in this place, his legs crossed, and his head lowered.

Chad activated the com system to speak to the being, but as he was about to…Richard spoke first. "So Chad, it's that time again."

"You knew?"

"The cameras make a small clicking sound the moment someone turns on the communication system and based on the time of day and how long it's been since we last talked. I knew."

Chad grabbed a metal chair that was close by and sat himself down on it. He felt exhausted. "So, still existing then? Anything new on your end?"

"The doctors here talk. Said about planning improvements around here. Trying to get noticed more and get others to join. A lack of numbers. They still haven't figured out I can overhear them…oh, and you've been having nightmares."

"They talk about me then."

"Of course. About you mumbling in your sleep, crying, hardly eating, drinking…living. Be careful Chad, you might end up like her."

Chad glared darkly at the screen.

"How is she anyway? Still lost? Still in her state of eternal rest?"

"She's fine."

"Of course she is to you. Like what happened to Chaos and Anna are fine to you as well. The docs mentioned it a few times and I still chuckle… I killed them."

"We're not going down that route today."

"But your nightmares are Chad. I bet they are."

Chad was telling himself to stay calm in his mind.

The lack of a response made Richard continue. "I'm right aren't I? I bet that hourglass is forever reminding you of what you've done."

"Shut the hell up."

"Why don't you tell them you murdered Anna? You stole her life for Rolls? You killed Chaos in a blind moment of rage not knowing he was your father all along."

"I didn't. You killed them."

"You just don't want to be a monster. I take every kill I make in my stride. You? The moment it's one you didn't expect you break, you're scared of being accused, of being isolated. Nameless knows that road. He's faced that…and his still alive."

"I haven't heard from him since Cybertron."

"He'll be around. He doesn't like staying away from me…we have a long history."

"He said about it. How you control those he cares about, how he fought you and lost."

"The only time he ever truly had lost to me, and it broke him. But those he cares about…"

"Do you still control them from here?"

"No. I don't control them. The power I have controls them. Chaotic energy."

"…" Chad sat back, arms folded. Silence for a few minutes.

Then Richard spoke. "So, the docs want to reset her, don't they?"

"…Roll?"

"Of course. They talked about her. I miss her you know. Think you can bring her lifeless corpse my way sometime?"

"The only time you'll ever see her is over my dead body."

Richard chuckled. "Careful Chad…I could arrange that sometime."

"Not while you're stuffed in there."

"They also say how you always stay by her side. That you've become her guardian more or less. They've talked to Maylu and made her understand that once Roll is reset, that pink haired girl will no longer be classed as her operator, that she could develop differently and learn new skills compared to her previous life thanks to her surroundings, as well as having a new name if someone suggests one. I hope she avoids you. People you care about die horribly around you."

"Because of you murdering them."

"Of course. Of course…You know, poor Anna would be dangerously jealous of Roll and you by now."

"How?"

"You never leave her. You've fallen asleep with her. You've gotten attached to her. I wouldn't be surprised if you two haven't fucked…then again, in her current state, she certainly wouldn't be able to say 'no', now would she? That pretty face, that soft skin…I bet you wonder what's underneath that Navi gear."

"You're fucked up." Chad angrily answered with.

"Says the guilt avoider. I bet your mind does stray from time to time though Chad. I bet you look at her and wonder…"

"Enough about Roll."

Richard stopped talking.

"I wanted to ask you about something, about the hourglasses."

"Hm? If you're hoping I know how to save Anna's soul, it's too late. Death has recycled her into the Universe, it's how he works a deal, you can't go back on it. You made that choice willingly."

Chad gritted his teeth, he wanted to shout but restrained himself. "…How do you know about him? About what he would do?"

"Oh, new questions this time Chad. I'm impressed you managed to make time for thinking about my words back then. Well, because I know him. I know a lot of things both present and past, far more than anyone should."

"What?"

"I know everything Chad. At least, to a certain point of time I do. I was gifted with this power. I can vaguely see parallel timelines bloom and die. I can see you, where you come from and what you can head towards. I even saw the three paths of the divergence as I started to make my moves. One path is us all being erased. Another is if you dropped the other hourglass. But untill that choice, I didn't know which one would lead to this specific timeline. If you chose Roll, in the other path I saw, I would've lost."

"…Anna would be alive?"

"Oh yes. Roll would've died, I would've been defeated, Chaos would've survived…and you would let me roam free."

"…"

"Oh I see. You're looking to justify your choice. Sadly no one will believe you Chad. 'I killed my lover to imprison one person for the sake of avoiding another timeline' doesn't sound like a good argument for murder, now does it?"

"I didn't kill Anna."

"Yet you keep your mind busy when you do step away from Roll. On the other days after your time spent with her you go to the hologram rooms alone."

"…The docs have been watching me too."

"Yep. They also know you keep running a custom simulation. One that's based inside Unicron's head…and with me in it. You keep facing me, keep overpowering me as I simply try to attack you. You avoid any sound coming out of me, giving it audio input…and you're never satisfied."

"…"

"All you do, is keep saying 'Stop, stop it, stop it.'…I know what you're trying to do there."

"…"

"You want that unique power you gained against me back, don't you? You're trying to re-activate it, to understand how it fully works, that warm feeling and boost of power that's takes you beyond your limits."

"I'm merely training."

"Don't bullshit me. I know you want to experience it again…but you won't. Not like that. Not without her. The girl had a strong connection to you, and she was mixed up in that. You achieved it because of her and now you're trying without, you can't get that feeling. You can never be so powerful again without her being in danger or dying. I'm surprised you haven't made a hologram of her and have her almost die to try and replicate your emotions—"

"I would never make a fake Anna just to have her hurt by you, fake you or otherwise!"

Richard went quiet for a little while, before chuckling. "Well, I'm sure you'll give up eventually with a mindset like that."

Chad got up from the chair. "I'm done for the night."

"Of course. Sweet dreams."

Chad walked out without another word.

Richard just sat there, looking at the ground. "…I wonder what the deities are going to do with their game now…"

* * *

Four further days had passed.

A meeting was called in the labs by the docs. Inside, was Dr Wily, Dr Light, Dr Hikari, Lan, Hub also known as Megaman the Navi, Dr Richard, Keira Hagai, Quickman the Navi, Darkmega, Maylu Sakurai and Light Rich, who was the clone of Dr Richard's dark self.

Light Rich had become a scientist like Dr Richard as both had decent knowledge of technology and the base. It's been believed that this clone was more akin to Dr Richard then his father, the dark soul Richard in the prison.

Dr Regal was unable to attend as he was currently on Mute Gaia, making sure the base there was up and running fully.

Most of them were sat down on what chairs were available. Maylu and Dr Richard were the only ones standing. Dr Richard was standing besides Dr Light, whilst Maylu was leaning back near a table, looking miserable. She knew what this would be about again.

"We need to make Chad understand it's time to stop this stand-off. The Navi needs to be revived. Roll isn't coming back, simple as that." Dr Hikari started off with.

Maylu winced a little on hearing this.

"Why can't we just leave him to it? It's not going to affect us if he stays in the cold room with an immovable Navi. Roll abilites were useful now and then, but at this point we don't need her. We need to just focus outwards and gather more people willing to join us. We have an extra base guys." Keira asked them.

"Wait don't we have three extra bases?" Lan looked over at her, then to Dr Light.

Dr Light nodded. "Yes. But the Wily Fortress is being used for experiment purposes. Dr Richard has given us some fresh ideas which we've started on already, and of course we have some of our own we want to test around. Gaia X's base is being used for stocking up supplies as we've been allowed to mine materials on Cybertron and two small locations on Earth V. We may be able to collect from other locations and want to safely put such useful components away."

"As for Chad." Dr Wily now talked. "We need him focused elsewhere. The boy is of Primus descent. Zuo Ci, an old friend of ours has been around and mentioned he was very important. If his distracted, too weak and too frail for whatever comes next that he needs to handle in whatever destiny that old annoyance has cooked up, it could end poorly for us all."

"He defeated Unicron. Diamas is on our side. The information left in Unicron can't be extracted without severe difficulty and even if it is, it can't be translated. Only we've managed to gain access. Chad's done his bit. Primus was all about Unicron." Dr Richard pointed out.

Diamas was indeed still on their side. He has gotten a little comfortable in the base since the loss of Unicron, but remains cautious around most people, especially Xiahou Yuan and Sun Shang Xiang. He also gave the docs some hope of getting Link and Zelda back, saying about how he revived his homeworld and several others.

But if they were restored, it was impossible to reach them. Black, energy sparking nebulas had covered over locations where in history, worlds existed. So far nothing has managed to get through them, including the one covering over where Hylian was.

"Primus was not all about fighting Unicron Richard. He was about defeating the forces of evil that rose up in his time." Dr Light stood up, walking over to the lab computer. On the screen was slab after slab of Chozo text. "He used to battle forces that would've made our Universe a much grimmer place then it is today. Each time someone is noted for being a Primus member, evil rises. Chad has been recognised as one, so we can only expect the worst."

"Hey uh, docs? Why am I here?" Quickman raised his hand. "I mean no offense, but I tried with Chad and he didn't listen the moment I mentioned you guys. I was planning to go on a date this evening with this Navi chick on the Earth X network, Cial?"

Dr Wily sighed. "That'll have to wait Quickman. I want you, my grandson and Darkmega to go and discuss with Chad about Roll and her future."

"You mean send all of us he now ignores and won't listen to? We've all been down this road. The moment we walk into that, room, Chad gets defensive." Dr Richard frowned a little.

"This time not in the hospital. I want you to go and see him in hologram room 4. By about 9 tonight he should be busy with his simulations. Go and talk to him away from Roll, you might finally convince him."

"Of what? 'Hey Chad, you have an important destiny that may or may not come up sometime soon so let's drop the girl that you saw suffer after the loss of your girlfriend and the person who might've actually been your father.' It doesn't sound convincing in my mind, so with Chad there's not much hope." Darkmega explained to the docs.

"Just tell him the truth. There's no hope that we will ever get Roll back, no matter what samples we take from our prisoner, no matter what we try to access within her, she is not coming back."

Maylu closed her eyes, trying to not think about that.

Darkmega noticed her reaction and gave in. "Alright. I'll try. Quickman?"

"Aw man, but Cial is a hottie. If I miss our date she might not give me another chance…but, as this is for my operator, I'll do it."

Darkmega looked to Dr Richard, who nodded at him. "No need to ask."

* * *

All three had waited patiently for the time to come, they made their way over to the hologram room and got inside it…but they weren't sure what Chad would be up to. The docs didn't explain to them what Chad does in these rooms.

Being inside Unicron's head which was badly damaged and slowly overpowering the Zerg-hybrid Richard as their hands were gripped together with Chad demanding he stopped was not what any of them thought.

"Stop it! I said stop it! Stop it Richard! NO MORE!"

Chad shoved him away and as Richard snarled and was about to attack, Chad unleashed a massive bright red energy beam, chaos energy infused, swallowing Richard whole and wiping him out.

Chad was panting a little, before cursing to himself. "Damnit! Still not enough! Access main system!" Before him, a green hologram screen appeared as he started to fiddle with the settings. "I need to make the enemy AI even more powerful! Maybe then it'll happen!"

Dr Richard looked over at Quickman, who simply twirled his finger near his head. Darkmega quietly said to both of them "His obviously trying to trigger a power he had before."

"What is it?" Dr Richard looked over as another Richard formed, with a mad smile before rushing towards Chad and once again they were both fighting.

"That, I have no idea on."

They stayed back and watched him. Again and again, he would face Richard. Again and again he would defeat the hologram…and each time he was getting more and more worked up.

As he blasted his seventh one away, Chad was sweating, clenching his fists and hunched over a little. "I don't understand! I don't get it! I'm strong enough to fight each one but I can't get what I want!? WHY!?"

He once again called up the hologram screen. "I'm going for it! Screw it! Exceed safety limits on AI! Increase its power level seventy times over current setting! That should do it!"

Quickman quickly looked over at Dr Richard. "We should stop him. This is getting out of hand."

"Yeah." Dr Richard took a few steps forward, just as Chad activated the hologram system to reset. "Hey Chad! Time out man!"

Chad looked over…at the worst time.

The suddenly remade and reactivated Zerg-hybrid slammed into him, knocking him down and pinning him in place grabbing him by the neck, snarling and looking insane.

Chad grabbed Richards arms and tried to pull him away. He could feel his neck being crushed, he could feel his strength slipping…could this be it? The moment where that power comes in. He was desperately trying to cling on to fight back.

It had to come, the moment had to arrive!

"Access main system emergency stop!" Dr Richard yelled out

The Richard pinning Chad down broke into data fragments and vanished.

Chad was enraged. He had never pushed himself up so fast before, before he was standing there glaring at Dr Richard, Quickman and Darkmega. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU GUYS WANT FROM ME!?"

Quickman was in shock that his Operator was being like this. "Chad calm down man! We just saved you from being killed!"

Darkmega tried to explain. "You bypassed the safety limits! It wouldn't have turned itself off if you were about to die!"

"I'm busy! Do you fucking mind!? If I want the safety feature off I can have it off!"

Dr Richard now tried to butt in. "Chad you can't endanger yourself like an idiot!"

"I can do what I damn well please! Reactivate the simulation!"

"By Azrael look at yourself Chad! You're acting like the hologram was your actual enemy! It's fake!"

"I need to do this! I need to push myself to my limits!"

"It won't bring Anna back Chad!" Darkmega yelled.

Chad just shut off at that moment, those words cut deep, really fast.

Quickman took this chance to walk over to his operator. "Chad, he's right. It won't. You need to stop hurting yourself, even just for this short time to listen to us.

Chad couldn't answer that. He just stared at them, his anger being sapped away.

In time, all three had gathered near Chad as he sat down in the head of Unicron. Quickman was sitting beside him as Darkmega and Dr Richard stood before him.

"Chad. We feel it's time to let Roll go." Dr Richard plainly put it.

"…No. I can't do that. I promised to protect her." Chad wasn't looking at any of them, he couldn't face them.

"You've done it enough. I think she would rather be able to see you again to thank you, rather than be trapped in that hospital room." Quickman explained.

"She won't even know Quickman. She won't remember me. Any of us."

Dr Richard sighed and sat down in front of Chad. "…No, she won't. She won't remember the time she healed me, saved me on the space station. She won't remember you, the friends she made, nor the life she led. She won't even recall Maylu."

"…"

"But at least she'll live a life."

"But she's still in there. I can't let go of that."

"We have to let go Chad."

Something about the way Dr Richard said that made Chad look at him. "Dr Richard?"

He was smiling a little, with his eyes closed. "It's tough to promise someone you'll keep them safe when it's beyond you."

Darkmega and Quickman were focused on him now too.

"She reminds me someone, her hair colour, eyes, the way she spoke…I had a close friend like her who died you know. That moment on the space station, I honestly thought for but a moment that Navi was her. But I knew better. She's gone. She never got a chance. But Roll? A Navi like her? She has a chance. She can rebuild her life."

"But it won't be Roll."

"I know. But I'll thank her for helping me in this new life she'll lead. I'll help her, support her, like you would too. She might never go by the name 'Roll' again, but she's still the person you know."

"…I need time to think about this. Please. I'll talk tomorrow to the docs."

Darkmega was about to talk, but Dr Richard shook his head at the Navi, before getting up. "We understand. I'll see you tomorrow. Darkmega? Quickman?"

Quickman nodded. "See ya Chad. You make sure you get plenty of rest okay?" And left.

Dr Richard also departed. Darkmega looked to the way out, before looking at Chad. "Hey."

Chad looked up at him.

"My memories from Hub are very strong towards Roll…I want her happy. But she can't smile like this."

Chad took a moment, before nodding in agreement.

Once Darkmega was gone, he got up off the floor and turned off the simulation.

Chad slowly ventured his way back to the hospital. As he entered, Medi was just shutting off the computer for the night. She looked over to him a little surprised. "Oh, you're early."

"How is she?"

Medi glanced over to the side room entrance. "Still the same Chad. Took another data extraction sample for the docs, nothing new."

"…It'll be last time it's needed."

Medi was quite surprised. "Oh, you mean you've decided—"

"Tomorrow. I'm going to stay with her tonight, then they can do what they need to do to wake her."

Medi smiled. "Well, at least you'll be able to take a break from visiting me. I'll see you tomorrow." She walked by him and was heading to her room.

Chad walked into the cryo room.

And there was a black coat hooded figure standing on the other side of the table where Roll was, looking at her. "You shouldn't have waited so long. Their patience has worn thin." It was a woman at least. He was sure he heard her voice before.

He readied his blade of darkness.

She looked over at him. "I'm not here for a fight. I've been watching her when possible while you've been away during these months."

"Not a convincing agreement. Why are you here? Who's patience? Why didn't you show yourself until now if you've been watching?"

"You're calming down a little. I felt this was the best time to finally talk. The patience, is of the deities. They want to have some fun and Richard and you delayed it. Now they've started to move just as you are ready to move on. I refused to show myself because you would mistake me as an ally of Richard…or Nameless."

She placed her hands on her hood and lowered it. A young woman of 20, with long pink hair and red eyes was now facing him. "I am neither. My name is—"

"Lucy Valentine…" Chad blinked, shaking his head and holding it a little with one hand, looking dumbstruck. "Wait what? What name was that?"

The woman smiled a little. "It's okay. A past you left behind is echoing within you. That doesn't matter, not yet."

Chad lowered the Blade of darkness now. "Is it your name then?"

"Yes and no. It was. My name is Lucy. Just Lucy. Soon Zuo Ci will come to you and tell you of trouble on Gaia VII. Sephiroth will be the reason, and along with him someone you thought dead. I want to help you have the power to fight."

"How?"

Lucy placed her hand in her pocket and pulled out a shard…of a Sigil stone, it's glowing chaotic energy quickly made Chad recall Richard's Zerg claws back in Unicron. "This can make you return to your full strength regardless of fatigue."

Chad was glaring in anger now. "Go to hell."

"You need it. I can help you control it, even fully extract what remains of the dark soul within you." Lucy spoke in a calm manner.

Chad went rigid. He was sure only he, Darkmega and the two docs knew about that. He asked them to scan him after Unicron and they confirmed a dormant form of the dark soul power remained in him thanks to Darkmega allowing him to use his energy during his battle with Richard.

"You want it out before she wakes up, don't you? I can help."

"Like Richard helped!? lied to me about?! Get out of here!"

"…" Lucy didn't budge.

"I'm not touching it!"

"And I'm not Richard. A part of you knows who I am."

Chad wouldn't change his mind though, he was ready to get rid of her by force now. "If you don't leave, you'll regret ever showing your face to me!"

Lucy slowly shook her head. "I'm sorry then." She slowly raised her hand before her…and Chad felt something, numerous things, tie around his body as the Sigil shard slowly raised up into the air, one end of it pointing towards Chad's chest. "But you need to take this to try and revert the damage he has done to your time."

The Sigil shard rushed towards him as Chad was immobile and plunged into the middle of his chest.

He blacked out as he felt a surge of pain.

* * *

" _Chad?"_

" _Chad!"_

Chad groaned. "I'm busy sleeping. Go find someone else…"

"Chad, I require your attention!"

That voice. Chad woke up, noticing he was on the floor of the cryo room. Sitting up, he saw Zuo Ci nearby him bent down, looking at him with some concern. "Oh, hey Zuo Ci."

"Why were you sleeping in a place like this?"

"I…doesn't matter, what's up?" Chad slowly got to his feet, as Zuo Ci got himself up.

"Chad, the forces of evil are on the move once again. Sephiroth and Phantom are trying to find a way to revive Unicron and are within his head even as we speak. You must stop them."

"Got it." Chad grabbed his blade of darkness off the floor. "Wait. Why can't you help me with dealing with—" He looked over to Zuo Ci…and the old man had vanished.

Chad just stared at where Zuo Ci was. That woman said about the deity coming…

He recalled the shard. He touched his chest and felt nothing. "…What the hell did she actually do to me…questions for later, I better go and talk to the docs for an emergency teleport to Gaia VII."

As he rushed out of the room, there was silence here…before Lucy reappeared, appearing from a shimmering wave of red energy, uncloaking near Roll. "I'll be behind you Chad." She placed her hand over her chest. "I have to be…if I want you to make us vanish."

* * *

Note time:

1\. This is the sequel to Broken Universe: Unicron Saga. Best to look at that before proceeding as it'll be confusing otherwise…but for reminder sake:

2\. Net Navis are from the Megaman Battle Network series.

3\. Zerg are not the exact same Zerg from Starcraft. These are more humanoid.

4\. Lu Bu, Pang Tong and those of the Earth V world are from Dynasty Warriors, particularly the 8th series, and a few characters will be from the 9th, appearance wise.

5\. Ryu and Ken are from Street Fighter

6\. Jak and Daxter are from, well, Jak and Daxter

7\. Sonic and Knuckles are from Sonic the Hedgehog

8\. Samus and Ridley are from the Metroid series

9\. Blind Io, Fate and Lady Luck are from Discworld

10\. Kefka and Sephiroth are villains of the Final Fantasy series

11\. Light Rich is based on the appearance of Ulysses from Ulysses 31.

12\. I think you get the fact these are characters from many different series so I'll stop.

-dragonridley


	2. A New Dark Soul Born

Shinra Federation.

It had now mostly secured its dominance over what was the powerful territory of the Galactic Federation. There were still small pockets of resistance here and there but compared to what could've come into play three months ago, they are nothing to the grand force.

Rufus Shinra, the head of the Shinra Federation felt fortunate about all that. Were it not for the Hero Base faction, he may have had a dangerous civil war on his hands, but they crippled the Galactic Federation each step of the way.

Now he had General Grievous, he had some of the remnants of the infamous unit 666, major forces that would've backed the Galactic Federation and its leader have been destroyed or accepted complete submission, such as the Han kingdom of Earth V and the Keyblade warriors.

Rufus refused to kill the cyborg once he presented himself to the emperor. He told Grievous of his value and worth to the security of future conquests for the Shinra Federation and gave him a comfortable position in his army. No where near the position he had under the Galactic Federation, but for him to be a commander of a vast army, he needed to earn Rufus' trust.

The leader of the Galactic Federation, Keaton Al'keriff still reared his ugly head after the conflict of Earth V. He led a further five small rebellions against Shinra, all which proved fruitless and nowhere near what he had gathered before.

He soon disappeared from view. Proving to Rufus to be far too insignificant to hunt down any further. All searches were called off and as far as Rufus knew, Keaton may have just passed on in sheer shame and misery for his inability to regain what was taken from him.

Though Rufus had to pay up for the Hero Base Factions aid in culling the GF, by giving them Cybertron, he gained Earth V.

Emperor Yuan Shao pledged the world's loyalty to the Shinra Federation, rather than to the Hero Base Faction. The Kings accepted his choice, though many chose to work much more closely to the Hero Base Faction rather than Shinra. On that world, there now were seven kings.

Ma Chao had retaken the land of Liang. There were many survivors, and the land was still able to be used, but the effects of the Unversed invasion were everlasting. The people there feared all outsiders, and Liang province had closed up it's borders to Yuan's kingdom and threatened to assault any transport ships that came near their land.

Ma Chao himself was still open to outsiders and decided to send himself as representative to the Hero Base to pay them back, as well as Cao Cao, for all they had done. Pang De, a loyal retainer of Ma Chao, had taken control and was making sure the land prospered.

Sun Ce was the new king of Wu after his father perished at the decisive battle at Jie Ting. Whilst his kingdom was licking its wounds from the losses it suffered, it maintained a strong relationship with the Hero Base Faction and gained a new friendship with the kingdom of Wei.

Shu, what was once the kingdom that belonged to the virtuous Liu Bei, was not commanded by his oath brother Guan Yu. The man stepped down without a second thought as the land was passed to him and gave it to Liu Bei's only able child, Liu Shan.

Whilst Guan Yu, with his son Guan Xing, his daughter Guan Yinping and his nephew by oath, Zhang Fei's son Zhang Bao, joined the Hero Base Faction once again, Liu Shan had chosen to cease contact with the worlds beyond Earth V. He felt they had led to the death of his father and many of the brave souls had sought to bring a just and peaceful world into existence. Only Guan Suo, Guan Yu's other son, is the Hero Base's point of contact should they wish to know about the state of Shu.

The Yellow Turban sect and their religious leader Zhang Jiao, now known as a King of Yellow River, now had a land to call their own. From it they have already converted those under their control and made sure their religious belief remains dominant, which has caused them a few minor problems when outsiders visit that believe in the way of Azrael or Blind Io.

Zhang Jiao himself remained at the Hero Base, believing it to be the right location for him to continue to spread his teaching, whilst his brothers Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao protected their new home.

Master Eraqus, now known as King Eraqus of Mianzhu, had taken the lands that once belonged to the Nanman and Liu Zhang. He had managed to gather all the remnants of the keybladers and had made his land an open location for all off worlders to come and live.

This had led to a majority of people that lived under Liu Zhang to leave and head to other Kingdoms, whilst the Nanman who had mostly kept to themselves in the years prior to the Unversed invasion, had quickly become interested in seeing the new technology and different cultures out of curiosity, if anything.

Within his kingdom, he had the ship Arcadia, commanded by the captain Kei Yuki. All the riches the ship had carried was passed over to Eraqus to use, as Kei had chosen to settle in his land and use it as her base of operations when her and her crew are not off out exploring the stars.

Eraqus had been the most vocal against Yuan Shao pledging this world to the Shinra Federation. He was still angered with the slaughter of his people back on his now destroyed homeworld, Land of Departure, but after council with Kei Yuki and Cao Cao, knew that they had to follow Yuan Shao and keep a low profile. Rufus accepted their loyalty and no longer saw anyone in this Kingdom as a threat to his control of the territory.

Cao Cao was still the king of his realm, Wei. He was regarded as Yuan Shao's closest ally and had often been the one to give the final suggestion to Yuan Shao during any of the meetings that had come across them, often with his final suggestion being the one Yuan Shao gladly followed.

This was sadly not the case one time when it came to who this world should become a part of. Cao Cao wanted it under the Hero Base Faction, but rewards, riches and having Rufus' ear on matters made Yuan Shao gladly choose the Shinra Federation. Though this slightly annoyed Cao Cao, Yuan Shao allowed him to come with the emperor to any meetings with Rufus to voice his opinions.

Whilst Yuan Shao was now emperor, one of his children took command of his kingdom of Yuan. Cao Cao, Sun Ce and Ma Chao all strongly recommended his eldest son to take the position as it should be. Liu Shan, Eraqus and Zhang Jiao agreed with the others.

Yuan Shao picked his youngest child, Yuan Shang.

To avoid any possible problems, Cao Cao then strongly suggested the eldest come with Yuan Shao to the Hero Base as a representative of his kingdom to avoid any conflicts whilst they are off-world between the kids.

Yuan Shao decided his middle child Yuan Xi and that boys' girlfriend, Zhen Ji, come to the Hero base instead with him.

This left the eldest, Yuan Tan, becoming highly agitated with his father. He had since been placed in command of the northern territories of the Yuan kingdom, and has been worryingly silent afterwards, something both Yuan Shang and Yuan Shao show little concern about.

Past that world and several others was the planet called Gaia VII, the current capital of the Shinra Federation. Current due to the fact Rufus has been thinking of moving to another world and make it the capital instead. Two had been on his mind, Gaia VIII and it's movable Balamb Garden and easily defendable location, or Corneria, which was currently populated by mobian colonists and had several fleet ship assembly stations around it.

Rufus was sitting at his desk. To his left was Dr Robotnik. To his right was Master Chief. Colonel would normally stand at this side, but recently the Net Navi revealed to Rufus that, now with Grievous on their side, it was he who sabotaged their battle on Earth X sometime back, doing so out of loyalty for the cyborg and his old unit.

Rufus was not happy with his choice of loyalty and admitted if Grievous was not on their side, Colonel would be deleted. But because of the circumstance at this time and Colonel effectiveness and the fact if Colonel was destroyed now, Grievous and his allies could be persuaded away, decided to let him stay. Though demoted.

Before them was Yuan Shao. To his left Cao Cao, to his right Yuan Shang, a young lad in his 20's with silver long hair tied back, golden armor like his father, and carrying a jagged tipped spear.

They were currently discussing affairs related to the Hero Base, as Yuan Shao remained a representative of them, and about Earth V with Yuan Shao having given a recent suggestion to Rufus to take over that world entirely…meaning war of his land's opposing enemy, the Shura.

Dr Robotnik was stroking one side of his moustache, thinking for a moment. "You honestly feel this will prove beneficial to our cause? Attacking tribal idiots who refuse to make contact with anyone outside their homeland?"

Yuan Shao smiled, feeling confident. "If anything, it will assure that my family name will cover my homeworld and all will bow to my glory. There were stories of the Shura lands carrying riches and wealth that can be taken. If we were to snatch them I'm sure there will be plenty for the Shinra Federation to mine and claim, whilst I, of course, get a fair share of it."

On Master Chief's shoulder, appearing as a small hologram was Cortana. "Emperor Rufus, I should remind you that the Han tried to propose this before to the Galactic Federation when the High Ministers were in power."

Rufus nodded. "The outcome?"

"14 to 1 voted against the idea. The Ministers deemed it an affair they shouldn't have to meddle in if those of Manusya of Earth V are confident enough to mock the people that live in the land of Shura."

Rufus stared at Yuan Shao. "That one single vote for it?"

Cortana looked over to Yuan as well. "Yep, him right there."

Yuan Shao still looked fine about, sure to himself that Rufus will go along with him. "Of course, I knew that it would be best for the—"

"Proposal rejected." Rufus focused back on his desk, typing up something on his computer for a moment.

Yuan Shang wasn't pleased. "My father has done so much for these Federations! Shouldn't you allow him this one idea and help bring our world together!? You space folk simply don't understand who we are!"

Cao Cao quickly looked annoyed, focusing on Yuan Shao after looking at Shang. "Yuan. I suggest you remind your child of his position currently. We are to speak at your suggestion and not in a manner that would provoke irritation to our current galactic leader. If he cannot remain calm, I suggest he leaves."

Yuan Shang didn't like the way Cao spoke, but Yuan Shao noticed the way Rufus was now looking annoyed at his son and quickly spoke to the boy. "Y-yes of course! Yuan Shang remember your place as king of Yuan! As your emperor and father, I expect you to be able to show proper respect to those we follow!"

"But father—" Yuan Shang started with.

"Don't make me hand your title off to one of your older brothers!"

The boy went quiet, mumbling and cursing slightly before doing so.

Rufus seemed satisfied with this, looking at Cao Cao. "At least some of you are aware of your place in the grand scheme of things…Cao Cao wasn't it? You helped Yuan Shao bring down Grievous on Gaia IX and headed the uprising against the Han on Earth V…strange of you to be speaking about people's positions when you clearly were not satisfied with yours."

Cao Cao bowed a little to show a sign of respect. "The Han was in a state of decline, much like that of the Galactic Federation. Did you not also become unhappy with where you were?"

"Indeed. But with myself, I elected to become emperor. Your position remains unchanged. You're still a king who lets others take control of his life."

"Yes, but in this position, I am satisfied. What about you?"

Rufus thought about this, turning his chair and getting up from his desk, slowly walking around to stand and face Yuan Shao and the others on the other side. "I'm not. Beyond the border of the Shinra Federation rests the Farside and the outer rim. I had planned for an expedition to dispose of our primary threat out there, the Protoss. But with Keaton hovering around, a needed heart operation and small signs of pests within, I had to delay that process."

"The Galactic Empire took advantage of this. They've been battling the Protoss and have conquered some of their territory and are also setting their sights on the Rebel Alliance. I've decided recently that I'm going to send some of our forces to join in the battles now against both."

"The Rebel Alliance aided us against Unicron." Yuan Shao looked a little surprised.

"Yes but they have no more use to me. Better to remove them along with the Protoss. Make a clear path through the outer rim to the Farside. Emperor Palpatine of the Galactic Empire is with me on this. Whilst these two minor forces are stamped out, all of my remaining forces in my territory will clear out the last pockets of active resistance. When it all comes together…we can finally expand our territory to new locations." Rufus was smiling.

"What of the United Federation of Planets?" Cao Cao looked to the emperor.

"Them? They won't act beyond providing medical aid to those who aren't fighting. I intend to try and maintain our alliance with them despite our differences of ideals and goals."

Rufus put his hand through his hair briefly, stroking it back. "And I hope those of the minor factions we control will continue to gladly cooperate with us…and speaking of the Hero Base faction, I wanted to know if they had any information on Unicron."

Yuan Shao was a confused. "Well, I am not one of the wise doctors' sir. I don't know if they know anything."

"Pity. It's just we've been trying to get into the damage databanks but so far have been unsuccessful. Yuan Shao, I would like you when you head back to the base to ask the doctors about—"

He heard Dr Robotnik's com-link beeping. "Answer that."

The scientist did so. "Robotnik speaking...An alert was made at Unicron's remains? Why?...WHAT!?" Dr Robotnik was suddenly in a state of worry. "What the hell, why has he gone into Unicrons remains!? Rally some troops and extract him at once!" Dr Robotnik turned off the com-link. "Forgive me Rufus, we have a situation."

"Speak."

"It's Sephiroth sir. His been located at Unicrons head and has wiped out the guards placed there."

* * *

Chad had just arrived outside it, Blade of Darkness in hand.

Unicron's head was in tatters, his mouth hung open with several metal ramps leading into it, scaffolding around his broken and indented metal face, all leading to his eyes. With one horn missing, holes through the head in different locations, fragments of metal and wiring strewn about the green valley which Unicron now resided in, jagged grey mountains on either side of him and several transport ships nearby, along with construction vehicles which help in the removal of pieces out of the planet eater.

Now all was silent.

Above the head, the skies were a dark grey, thunder briefly flashing and it's sound echoing through the place…before him, up the ramps and on the scaffolding, were numerous dissected corpses of the Shinra Federation, their blood painted where they fell.

Chad felt a little uneasy now. "Well Unicron…it's been a good while." He braced himself, then started making his way up the scaffolding, knowing where Sephiroth is bound to be going, especially for anything of value, the brain location.

He did wish a little now that he accepted the docs suggestion of getting others to help him, but he felt they would only slow him down. He just wanted Sephiroth out of the picture. Maybe fighting him will help towards what he wants to achieve, so going toe to toe with the expert swordsman might prove beneficial.

'You're going to fuck yourself, you know that right?' His conscience spoke to him.

"It'll be fine."

'You didn't even stand toe to toe with him the last few times you met him. If I recall he fucked you up on one occasion.'

Chad was now getting close to one of the broken emerald eyes of Unicron, climbing up another metal ladder. "I'm stronger now."

'That's not how you've been seeing it.'

Inside the eye, numerous tools were seen left around, along the bodies of more fallen troopers. The inner corridor was much more messier now than what Chad recalled last. Wires were hanging out everywhere, exposed panels of machinery, and clear signs that parts have been taken out with precision.

Chad stepped over the bodies and continued on.

His conscience spoke again. 'You've left him.'

"I know. But I know he won't act."

'He might've been waited for this moment. This might be all a distraction. That Lucy girl and Sephiroth might be working with him."

"He won't act."

'You left Roll alone with him.'

Chad stopped, sighing deeply. "She won't be Roll for much longer. They're right. I need to let go of her now."

'Let's hope you can live with that, shall we?'

"And where do you think you're going, Oswald?"

Chad heard that voice in front of him, readying his sword as an orange glow started to appear, revealing the shape of the creature that had spoke and started to slowly move his way.

Phantom, the lava spider scorpion hybrid summon of Sephiroth. "Well now boy, it's been some time. First you hinder our plans, then you slay Unicron…That was a bad choice."

"Phantom. If I recall I beat your ass on Gaia VII. Feeling better now are we?"

"I see you've gotten more confident." Phantom's eyes started to grow red, as his rear end changed to that of his scorpion tail. "It's a shame this is where you will die!"

The tail shot forward. Chad just simply sidestepped the stinger and sliced it off, causing molten liquid to spew out and splash on the ground as Phantom retracted his tail, yelling out before keeping his mouth open, and a fireball began to form within it.

"Chaos control!" Chad fired off a chaos beam straight at the fireball and thus into Phantoms mouth, causing an explosion which made the being stumble back, shaking its head to try and regain its posture. Chad wouldn't wait though. "EXPLOSION!" he rushed forward, avoided the claws as Phantom tried to take a few swings and connected his sword right into the eyes of the beast.

The blast flung Phantom back further into the depths of Unicron's eye socket. Once the blast had cleared, Chad saw he did some damage, as several of Phantoms eyes were destroyed, lava dripping out of the gaping wounds to the ground and turning rapidly solid from cooling. "You. You're more powerful than what you should be…"

Chad rushed at him and swung his blade, being stopped by the claws, both now taking swings at one another with Phantom being unable to use his size and might to push Chad away. "You haven't improved at all Phantom, guess Sephiroth hasn't been watching me lately!"

"Insolent fool! I'll bury you!" Phantom lifted himself up onto his hind legs and used his weight to try and crush Chad, who just jumped away, firing another chaos beam into the summons head.

Phantom catapulted himself forward, ready to take Chad down as his patience ran out. Chad shouted out "SILFARION!" and before Phantom knew, Chad had leapt over the summon, hacking at it as he did so, each hit carving into the shell of the beast and it's leg joints before it landed, panting and wheezing before collapsing to the ground, as Chad landed behind it, his blade of darkness returning to normal.

Chad turned to face Phantom again, noticing it was still breathing. "What's Sephiroth doing here? Is he trying to revive Unicron?"

"I, I'll be back soon enough boy. I'll make you pay for this…" Phantom pushed himself up, before a massive pool of lava appeared beneath him, and he sunk into it, the pool closing up and disappearing afterwards.

Chad didn't wait around. He continued into the mind area of Unicron.

Upon entering, he had a momentary flashback, seeing Diamas, Chaos and Richard before him, when the systems were active, and with him Darkmega, Dr Richard and that Zerg who helped them, Zasz.

Now the place was dreary, making the odd creaking sound as the head of Unicron was just keeping itself together. A handful of bodies were here, torn down like the others. None of the computers were active…yet standing close to them, looking down at the broken, damaged screens, was Sephiroth.

"…And thus, the slayer of the planet eater arrives. I assume the old man sent you?" Sephiroth didn't bother looking at Chad.

"What's all this about Sephiroth? Come to mourn for it's death?" Chad held his weapon ready, tension building up inside him. He was about to fight Sephiroth, who was in a different league to Phantom.

"No. I came to ensure an ally of his returns to the living…I'm sure you missed him."

"…huh?"

That's when Chad heard footsteps, coming from the other passageway, from the other eye…and there standing before him, with his black shades covering his red eyes, his blonde hair gelled back, paler skin then what Chad saw last time his arms crossed over his chest. Wearing a black sweatshirt, black trousers and black jacket over his sweatshirt as well as black gloves. "Well now, Chad Oswald. We meet again."

Chaos.

Chad just stared in utter shock. "Y-you're alive? Father?" He just realized what he said a moment too late.

Chaos smirked. "Of course I am you deluded brat. Did you honestly think you could kill me?"

Sephiroth looked over to Chaos over his shoulder, watching him.

"B-but the Dark Wolf. It, it feeds on souls, it took yours away."

"Merely a minor inconvenience. Now that you're here 'son', why don't we make sure one of us dies this time?"

"Chaos." Sephiroth turned to face him now. "Not yet."

"Not…yet?" Chad glanced between the two.

"I shall deal with him." With that Sephiroth flew towards Chad and swung his sword, Chad just managed to block it, but felt himself get pushed back, his feet skidding on the metal ground. The one winged warriors gave chase using his sword again and again whilst Chad, now feeling the power difference between Phantom and Sephiroth was just trying to hold him at bay.

Chaos looked highly irritated by what just happened. "Annoying deities always want things done their own way…fine, I'll watch."

Chad ducked the weapon then found a fireball being flung at him, knocking him further back. He blocked the next sword swing only to then find a fist punching him in the stomach. He tried to attack and Sephiroth used ice magic on Chad's arms, making them go numb and him struggling to hold the blade of darkness, before the deity raised his spare hand upwards, and blasting out all around him, was Ultima.

Chad found himself rolling across the floor and slamming into the wall, dropping the blade of darkness…before he felt pain from one of his shoulders, as the Masamune was stabbed in. Sephiroth stood there, looking down at him. "You should've called your friends Chad. You have a better chance with allies. Didn't fighting Unicron prove that to you?"

"Kill him." Chaos called out to the deity.

Sephiroth sighed a little, shaking his head whilst Chad was weakly trying to pull the blade out of his shoulder. "He cannot be killed."

"I said kill him! Forget what you guys want and end him!" Chaos started walking over, which made Sephiroth pull his sword out from Chad and aim it at Chaos.

"Do not step out of your place."

"Step out of my place!? I am the First! I am one of the most powerful beings there ever lived and YOU dare to say such to me!?"

Chad was slowly getting himself up, picking up the blade of darkness.

"You know who commands us. You wouldn't dare challenge HIS wish, would you?"

"I can if I so choose! My power can match his!"

"Then what of 'her'?"

Chaos was snarling now, but it was clear he no longer had the intention to fight, as he slowly stepped back.

Chad raised his sword, ready to attack Sephiroth…

When he felt the sword plunge into his stomach.

Sephiroth had already noticed he was recovering as he was now looking back at Chad.

But then several barely visible white demonic hands appeared, grabbing Sephiroth and pulling him away, surprising him before a blue metal staff, covered with a dark purple aura smashed Sephiroth across the chest sending him across the room.

The hands slowly retracted and were now surrounding their controller…Lucy. The black coat was gone. She was standing there wearing a dark pink short sleeved shirt, blue jeans and black boots. Sephiroth had easily controlled himself and landed on his feet, looking surprised at Lucy. "…A chaotic one?"

"The name's Lucy." Slowly, the aura around her staff seemed to flow around her, causing her hair to flow slightly like it was being blown by wind. "And I carry a power beyond you. With this power I shall complete my own mission."

Chaos looked pissed off. "I never thought one of them would show their face out in open! Now's our chance to crush her AND the boy!"

Lucy looked over to Chad. "Don't be afraid Chad. The power I gave you, demand strength and it will answer you!"

Chad looked at her, then at Sephiroth and Chaos. Chaos was moving towards Chad, whilst Sephiroth had noticed this, he had to focus on Lucy as she was now a top priority to him.

"I shall erase you from this Universe. You don't belong anywhere." Sephiroth readied his blade.

Chad stared at Chaos, and indeed wished for more power, to be able to defeat Chaos, disregarding the fact it was his father, he recalled back to when Chaos was his enemy. The tormentor to Mobius and ally to Robotnik…

And it came, a sudden new rush of energy whilst at the same time, it felt familiar.

The Dark soul inside him had come to life, he knew this evil twisted feeling…but this time it felt tamed, he was in complete control, a purple aura that matched Lucy's surrounded him. He looked to his sword, vaguely recalling one time he used the dark soul, the blade became disfigured, like it was melting.

Not this time, he was in complete control of it…and smirked at his father. "Bring it on."

Chaos didn't move in. This power gave him pause. "…You should no longer have it. You should've had it sealed away after Richard failed to use it any further against you."

"Not gonna come to me? Fine." In a flash of bright red, Chad vanished and reappeared behind Chaos. "I'll come to you! Chaos Blast!"

The red blast erupting out of Chad struck Chaos with enough strength it swept him off his feet, sliding on the ground on his back before he jumped up and in a flash of red, Chad was before him. "EXPLOSION!"

Chaos managed to use chaos energy himself to teleport away from the blast. Once the smoke cleared, Chad was ready again.

Lucy meanwhile had just blasted Sephiroth away with her demonic energy created hands combining into a white energy beam. She turned to Chad "Chad! Don't be afraid of corruption! Use abilites you know of that you would normally not be able to! Chaos Control!" Lucy quickly raised her hand to Sephiroth as he had appeared to the side of her and blasted him away with a purple and red beam.

Chad nodded as Chaos was now attacking him, running at him to give him a beatdown. "Alright…how about the super state Sonic used to achieve!" Chad thought about it as Chaos got close, and as the enemy's fist was about to make contact…Chaos was blasted away, hitting the ground and rising back up to his feet.

As Chad was now standing there, his skin a completely dark purple now, turned into his mobian form and had golden eyes and yellow fur, the aura was now much larger and more powerful than before. "Now this is sweet!"

Chaos glared and moved one step.

Chad flew and slammed into him as hard as possible causing Chaos to yell out in agony and be launched into the air from the sheer force of it…as Chad turned and flew back towards the man, slamming into him again and again, knocking him all the way up to the ceiling. As Chaos smacked into it, he felt Chad smash into his chest with his hands, embedding him briefly into the now broken metal around him.

Chad moved back a little, floating there as Chaos fell out of the hole he had made.

Time seemed to slow down.

Chad saw another him opposite of Chaos, a dark grey version of him, with a matching aura.

Both of them at once kicked their feet into Chaos, knocking him back into the ceiling, over and over, before both raised their hands to Chaos and with Chad yelling "Chaos Beam!"

This was a much more intense and powerful version of the Chaos control beam…and two of them struck Chaos with such force the ceiling tore open as Chaos was heard screaming out into the sky, disappearing from view.

Chad looked to his new counterpart, slowly lowering down towards the ground. "And you are?"

The other Chad pointed to Chad.

"Well duh, I mean what are you exactly?"

It took a moment, but as they both landed, Chad knew.

It was his dark soul. It had come out of him to help him. He looked over and found Lucy now in a standoff with Sephiroth, who was looking exhausted and was covered in claw marks, his clothing damaged.

Sephiroth tried to keep himself ready. "Vectors…An advanced art of psychic power. I never knew someone with that power still existed."

"You wouldn't. Not yet Sephiroth. I suggest you leave." Lucy warned him, keeping her staff ready.

"Yeah. Because it's now three on one." Chad walked over near Lucy, his double following behind, both with blades of darkness' ready.

Sephiroth looked a little surprised at spotting that. "That…Wy would you allow that to exist with that chaotic—"

"RRRAAAHHH!"

Chad and his double quickly looked behind them.

Phantom had appeared from the walls and was charging straight at Chad and his other self. "Your mine Oswald!"

Chad had a dark smile on his face as Phantom got close, a new thought…no, an ability he knew but had yet to use sprung to mind, whilst his dark self held his sword ready, along with a dark cyber sword. "This is it Phantom!"

Chad's dark self jumped behind Chad.

"RUNESAVE!"

The Blade of Darkness transformed, boosted by the power that was within Chad's aura, appearing almost see through but also blood red as Chad swung the blade at Phantom as the beast approached, phasing through his face doing no damage at all, then using Chaos control to teleport to the side just before he met the beasts open maw.

His dark self swung both blades straight after, both causing a purple X shaped shockwave to flow through Phantom who had come to a stop.

Sephiroth, for the few times of his life, was stunned.

Phantom slowly started to have an X shape appear on his face, before it appeared all the way down his body, as he then burst apart, his inside heated liquid pouring to the ground as his body collapsed into chunks and started to cool.

His eyes turned lifeless, and Sephiroth quickly realized what had just happened. "You, you have killed Phantom. You disabled his summon powers and…killed him." Sephiroth moved back, before covering himself with his wing, and vanished, a flurry of black feathers was left behind.

Chad felt the super power he had triggered vanish, turning him back into a human. His dark self had changed back as well, disabling the dark cyber sword it had created.

Then the dark soul turned into a small black orb, and launched itself back into Chad, causing the purple aura he had to vanish and stumble to the floor, feeling a strong pain in his chest as Lucy walked over, her purple aura disappearing, and the hands she had around her fading away as well.

Soon, the pain died. Chad felt that boost of power vanish as he got himself back on his feet. Staring at Lucy. "What, what was that?"

"The power of corruption or chaotic energy if you prefer. That figure was the sigil soul, a more powerful form of a dark soul, now fed with the power of the Sigil shard I gave you, it will gain its own life and leave you."

"Why the hell did you do that? For what purpose?"

"I allowed Angelus to exist. It's the only way to entirely remove the sigil soul. It needs a way out." Lucy looked guilty as she said it. "I'm sorry, but I don't want them to sense you anymore. As long as you have that sigil soul inside of you, Nameless and the others could keep direct tabs on where you are. This will give you space, once Angelus escapes."

Chad looked confused. "Angelus?"

"That is what it will call itself."

"And…Nameless? He's an ally, right?"

"…I don't know who he is to me anymore. I used to feel close to him, but seeing you…" She looked at him, and in her eyes, were tears forming. "Hah, the care you show for her. I remember when he used to care, cared for her, like you do now...please Chad, protect her, keep her close. Don't let them twist you and force you away from her...because that's what the Shadow wants. His will exists within Richard."

Chad stared at her. "First the Dark one, then Broken one, now the Shadow. So what's this third one? Is it a new person I haven't met?"

Lucy nodded a little, wiping the tears away. "The Shadow. He came to our homeworld. He brought so much misery with him…it led to Richard and Nameless working as a team to stop him and the lord of dust…or at least delaying the latter." Chad was now baffled. "Don't worry about the lord of dust. You'll hopefully never see it."

"So, Richard was a good guy too at some point?"

"He was an enemy, but he was one of the few willing to try and salvage our world and fight this greater evil…we just never knew who it exactly was until Nameless and Richard battled it…" Lucy walked around a little, looking at the ruined walls of Unicron. "Our world was sealed…but we returned home, our memories lost of that time…. only Richard recalled it all, and he met us again in the Abyss…He showed Nameless that time, because 'he needed to know'."

"Your world? Returned home?"

"Sorry, I keep forgetting who I'm talking to here. Of course you have no idea. You were there once there though, at DR…you saved everyone along with the Gamemasters."

"Chad! Chad what's happening at Unicron? Is Sephiroth gone?" Dr Wily's voice came through on the com-link.

Chad answered it…and felt a small pain in his chest.

Lucy noticed him wince a little. "He'll soon come out. It's best to trap yourself away for the time it takes to escape…you'll defeat him later. Trust me."

Chad nodded at her, before focusing on the com-link. "Yeah. But Chaos is back. Defeated them both though. I need you to get a prison ready like Richard has…for me."

"Wait, what?" Dr Wily sounded stunned at that.

"I need to wait for something important doc. Trust me on this. I'm now a danger." He looked at Lucy, turning the com-link off. "What about you?"

"I have places to be…Goodbye Chad." With that, Lucy made an orange holographic device appear on her arm, and after pressing a few buttons, she is teleported away.

* * *

Chaos was in the grassland some distance from Unicron's head. His clothing was mostly destroyed, glasses shattered and a gaping wound in his chest. He was laying there on his back, seemingly out of it.

Sephiroth appeared next to him, as did Zuo Ci.

"It seems this whole idea has gone wrong." Zuo Ci looked over to the long silver haired deity, who raised his hand towards Chaos, and in a brief flash of white, made him vanish.

"Chad knows 'Chaos' is alive, the only good thing to come out of this. But it's unreliable. If it was truly Chaos I feel he would've kept to our plan, but his aggression and refusal to listen is a major hinderance. I've sent him back to Ingrid and I'll explain to her what happened. I believe she will no longer tolerate his presence if he is too arrogant."

"…What happened in there? I sensed Phantom, then nothing."

Sephiroth looked up to the grey sky. "Phantom has ceased to exist."

"That is impossible."

"I cannot sense nor revive Phantoms soul. It has been destroyed by the power that girl and Chad used. Chaotic energy…"

Zuo CI looked down at his tarot cards. "We will have to explain this to Blind Io…this is deeply disturbing. For Chad to have kind've power."

"He also used Runesave."

"…He shouldn't be able to. I have not taught him that one."

"He used it Zuo Ci."

"Then he is progressing quicker than expected. We must adjust the game further. Now, tell me of the girl."

Sephiroth looked over to the old deity. "She called herself Lucy. She had the vector ability, something that no one beyond that world, Beyondard, has. Gabriel may know her as it is under his control."

"…I know her myself. When I went to Beyondard to monitor that certain family. I know where she is." Zuo CI started walking away. "I shall deal with her." In a white flash, he was gone.

Sephiroth chuckled a little, before looking over at Unicrons head, and noticing new transport ships were arriving. "Fine then. I'll inform Blind Io." And with that, he too was gone.

* * *

It was the next day.

In a steel room, with a small toilet, cameras trained on it, a metal bed, and a ceiling covered in white lights that were beaming down on him…

Was Chad.

This room was larger than what Richard was living in, but it was more or less the same. Chad wanted it like this.

He was sitting on the metal bed, which unlike Richards had the luxury of a sheet and a pillow.

That joy he found in using Chaotic came crashing down when he got away from Lucy. He had used the Sigil shards power, and it gave life to his dark self, who was now getting stronger and stronger on the inside.

It wouldn't be long, and he knew it. He just needed to focus his mind.

Dr Richard had given him some pointers, afterall, he had suffered witnessing the creation of his dark self. Hub could've helped too but didn't want to revisit it.

" _It'll want your body Chad. Don't listen to any of it's suggestions and wait calmly. Dark souls are prone to frustration. It'll give way and force itself out…most likely via vomiting or some kind of energy aura or even peeing it out, regardless it'll hurt."_

" _Don't talk to it. I did that and it led to it trying to take my body. Gramps had to shock me to get me to take back control."_

" _Don't attack it. It's not there until you bring it up. It can force you to attack people and computers and buttons in order to escape."_

Knowing these things didn't help. He had to wait now. He knew it was coming, but time was trickling inside here.

'…So this is what Richard goes through huh?' his conscience spoke to him.

"Seems like it." Chad answered himself, looking across the room at the steel door between him and the outside world. This one wouldn't trigger a fire system, Wily disabled that as he refused to kill Chad.

'This would be a good time to reflect.'

"On what?"

'How we got to this mess.'

Chad sighed, placing his arms on his legs just above his knees, now looking down at the ground. "Coming from Mobius to Earth X, Anna bringing us along. We fought our allies who were controlled, killed Master Hand, got lost in time for 2 years—"

'Do you think it'll take that long for this to pass?'

"Hm?"

'The dark soul. It could take ages, months…maybe years. Is being trapped in here such a good idea?'

"It's the only way…anyway, as I was saying, 2 years on, we head to Zebes, defeat Darkmega, befriend Darkmega, go after items, defeat Unicron, get dragged into a civil war and defeated and befriended Diamas who actively avoiding me now. That about sums it up."

'You know you have time to look at the details right? Meeting Nameless? Roll's state of being? Anna's—'

"Let's not revisit that right now."

Outside the room, Dr Wily was standing there, looking at the computer screen showing the inside of where Chad was. Beside him were Dr Light and Dr Richard. He shook his head. "The boy's already talking to himself."

"I never thought I'd see the day Chad would succumb to this. I thought the dark soul inside of him was dealt with?" Dr Light looked at them both.

"No. it was merely subdued, and now his fed it enough power to become what you guys made me and Hub go through." Dr Richard grabbed a folded-up metal chair, unfolded it and sat down. "This is gonna take a while I think."

Dr Light focused back on the screen. "…Do you think our mutual friend is behind this Albert?"

"Without a shadow of a doubt…for now we have to go along with it and support Chad. Thomas I suggest you set up a meal routine for Chad. Unlike dark soul Richard this boy still needs food and water. Richard I need you to keep an eye on Chad, or at least set up a constant monitoring team to take turns."

"What about the dimensional gateway project?" Dr Richard looked a little surprised. "I felt we were getting close to a breakthrough on it."

Light turned to his friend. "I think we need to focus on that still as well. It could lead to a new mode of transport and take us to locations we don't yet know."

"Which I've been meaning to ask…" Dr Wily turned to his grandson. "Where did you get the information to create it? You didn't think it up."

Dr Richard nodded. "Yeah you're right, I didn't. I got it from the space station network I was trapped in. I assumed you left the blueprints there."

"I hadn't thought of anything like that. I don't even know what a 'time crystal' is that enables another part of the program this device will have."

"Could Gerald Robotnik have thought of it? That space station once belonged to him." Dr Light was guessing.

Dr Wily frowned a little. "Gerald was a man of genetics and machines, not of space and time. That focus was of Yuri's. But he never mentioned it."

"Well regardless we've almost there. I'll keep it going. Light Rich can handle watching Chad." Dr Richard looked at the screen once more, before leaving the room.

He headed off to Ridley's bar, needed to have a small refreshing drink before teleporting himself over to the Wily Fortress. He still wasn't 100% comfortable working with his grandfather again, nor with Lan and Megaman. Those two always seem to be giving him dirty looks.

He entered the bar and walked over to the counter, sitting next to someone he didn't expect to be here. Diamas. In the bar right now was of course Ridley, Samus, Zhang Liao, the usual. There was also Guan Yu, Jak, Daxter, Charlie and a girl who looked in her twenties, with long black hair and green clothing that turned out to be Guan Yu's only daughter, Guan Yinping…and right now she looked a little embarrassed as Daxter was speaking.

"Hey Guan Yu, I need to ask you something…at what point to you think you've over trained your kids?"

Guan Yu looked a little surprised, stopping himself from taking a sip from his metal mug of booze. "Why do you ask?" He looked over to his daughter, who had gone a little redder now.

"You know the robot that hangs around that's not Wily and Light related? E123 Omega?"

"Yes?"

"We are all hanging around in the main room, and she just decides to ask if she can lift him up…and she was able to like he was a goddamn paperweight! Rouge had to plead with Yinping to put him down before she broke something!"

Guan Yu looked a little surprised, before he asked the Ottsel. "Did she have permission to life him?"

"Of course she did but—"

"Then I can't see a problem."

"She's not even that buff and she can lift a goddamn robot long beard! That's my concern! What drugs did you give her?!"

"My daughter is able to tap into all of her strength. That is all."

"Hey Daxter, maybe we should ask her to see how far she can throw you." Jak looked over at his pal, annoyed with his attitude at the moment about the impressive feat they saw with Yinping.

"You can piss off Jak! If she threw me I'll be gone into orbit!"

Charlie wasn't so impressed with what he just heard about Omega though, sitting back and drinking his green glass of liquid. "So what If she could lift a robot? I heard she can punch through walls, is that right?"

Yinping nodded. "Well, of course I can. I need to be as strong as my father."

"Waaaayyyy past that point missy." Daxter pointed out.

Dr Richard had his drink from Ridley now, and was, for a while, silently sipping it, watching Diamas as he was enjoying some white wine. Finally he decided to talk. "So, Diamas. How's things?"

Diamas gave off a sigh, before putting his glass down. "Life here is awkward. I feel no one wishes to be like Primus of before and his band of men. Adventuring out to the stars and exploring new worlds."

"That's what you expected off these guys?"

"I guess." Diamas looked down into the wine. "Chad reminded me Primus, so I thought all of you would follow our old shoes. Clearly I'm mistaken."

"Dude it's been three million years since Primus. The worlds hidden away across galaxies have been found, resources plundered, cities ravaged, women rustled and cattle raped. It's kinda pointless to look for new worlds unless your willing to go to the outer rim or, Azrael forbid the Farside."

"Still…you have been more welcoming then I expected after all I had done." Diamas looked to Dr Richard.

"Well yeah the people here are quite friendly to newcomers. Guess it's because we have to stick together and get along as we're only a few rooms apart. Over time you'll feel chill here, relaxed, get a hobby…maybe knitting. I dunno I can see that in your future."

Diamas frowned. "Thanks…I guess?"

Just then Darkmega had arrived into the bar and sat down on a chair besides Dr Richard. "Hey Dr Richard?"

"Hm? What's up?"

"Have you seen Medi lately?"

"Not for a while, why do you ask?" Dr Richard turned himself on the chair to focus towards Darkmega.

"Well it's just, I dunno…she seems more focused on hanging around the hospital lately even when no one's in there. I don't know why. She keeps going between the main hospital room and the side room where Roll and Chad are."

Dr Richard shrugged it off. "So? Probably looking after Roll for Chad whilst the guy's trapped himself away to sort his problem out."

"Well you see she's also—" Darkmega was surprised once his mind finished processing what Dr Richard said. "Problem? What problem?"

"Oh right…guess he did kinda just hide in the labs till the room was ready then headed right on in. His got a dark soul problem."

"Wait what!?"

"Yeah, I know right? Soon after we get him almost accepting our suggestion to let Roll move on he goes and does this. Now we gotta wait for him to recover."

"…Can you show me where he is sometime?"

"Of course. But for now I just need to chill."

* * *

For chad, hours felt like forever.

He knew he had two meals so far. They teleported the plates in, he ate, then they teleported them out. Dr Wily had asked him about his condition…an hour? Two hours ago? Time was rapidly losing it's meaning in this place.

Why couldn't they leave him a clock? That would help. Maybe a few gaming machines, a small tv…just something. But no, he was left to his own thoughts.

'I wonder how Richard passes the time. Do you think he simply drifts to sleep and enjoys his own fantasy realm? Lucid dreaming?'

"I don't know and nor do I care." Chad answered himself.

'Of course you do. You want to know his routine, how he works, what makes him tick…it might expose a weakness you can use.'

"You haven't been this talkative in a long while."

'But I've always been here. You've just been more distracted lately, afterall, she can be quite the looker when you check out the finer details.'

"Don't talk about Roll like that."

'It's frustrating isn't it? Being trapped between a rock and a hard place. Lose her for a Navi that sounds like her but never will be, or leave her in his between life and death state, and hope she'll come back.'

"I have decided on that."

'To make Roll 'die'? You'd never agree when they ask you one final time. You'll fold and wish to cling onto that hope of yours a little longer.'

"Why are you being like this?"

'I'm simply telling you what you honestly feel!'

Chad laid down on the metal, closing his eyes to try and sleep. "Maybe you should leave me alone."

'You want to dream huh? Just remember the least three months hasn't been easy with those.'

Chad ignored it, just waiting for sleep to come, even on this comfortable bed. He needed to wait…

The next day, Chad was sitting up again, the same walls, the same lack of sound…the same voice in his mind.

He had the same nightmare, the same blooded hourglass.

Dr Wily offered to teleport him to his bathroom to he could wash. But Chad flatly refused.

He just waited.

At some point in the day, a new voice spoke to him, from the communication device on the cameras. "Chad?"

"Darkmega?" Chad looked up to one of the cameras in the corner. "You don't know how good it is to hear someone else talk to you. How are things?"

"I'm good. Medi is…keeping an eye on Roll, I think. Dr Wily allowed me to take Light Rich's shift this afternoon so we can have a chat if you want."

"Gladly. Also, what was that about Medi?"

"Medi is…Chad she seems a little strange lately. She keeps carrying blank battlechips from the hospital. I'm not sure if I should tell the docs or not."

Chad raised his eyebrow a little. "Are blank battlechips a bad thing?"

"No. I don't think so. They're built for carrying data so I don't know if she's bringing her work home or not. We don't share the same room, so I have no idea."

"I doubt it's anything Darkmega."

'You doubt it? For all you know she might be controlled by Richard.' His conscience spoke up.

"No. I don't think she is."

"Chad?" That was Darkmega now, sounding worried.

"Darkmega I…I'm fine. Don't worry about what I just said. Just leave her to it."

From there, Chad and Darkmega discussed when they first met, Darkmega's escape into Brinstar with Ridley and the others and of course, their battle with Unicron.

Then they got to Twinkle Park.

Darkmega was chatting away. "So yeah, on that Ferris wheel Medi was really smooching me. I wanted to see what you and Anna were up to but boy she did not wanna stop-"

'Ah Anna…how we miss her dearly.' The conscience spoke.

Chad gritted his teeth, quietly saying to himself. "Shut. Up."

'Do you remember when you confessed your love for her? Wasn't that wonderful? But now we've taken it all away from ourselves. We were so stupid to not even figure out those hourglasses.'

"We were busy trying to get home."

'We weren't thinking clearly. 'R' and 'A'? Come one Chad we should've clicked on that when ol'skeletor in a cloak demanded we pick a life!'

"If I thought about it Death might've not been patient with us and killed us all!"

'And because YOU rushed it we won't even know!'

"I know what I DID!"

Chad soon noticed that Darkmega had gone silent. "Uhh…Darkmega?"

"Chad, I'm getting worried about you."

"I'm…" Chad slowly brought his knees up to his chest and placed his arms around them. "I just need time."

* * *

Another day passed.

Darkmega had come again to him. This time they talked about Earth V.

"You know…Medi really did help us in that underground hot spring Yuan Shao had."

Chad nodded. "Mm, she got us to relax when we needed it."

'It gave you a fantastic view of her body after that encounter in the hospital. We certainly wouldn't have minded if things got steamy between Medi and us.'

Chad was trying to ignore his conscience and its comments as Darkmega continued. "Then of course, Anna came along and oh boy I did not feel so threatened as I did at that moment. I could see you felt the same."

'Only because you wanted a more open relationship. Medi's a close friend of Annas…it wouldn't of hurt.'

"Yeah well, Anna would've killed me Darkmega if Medi didn't intervene."

"Thankfully she did…speaking of Medi. I never knew I killed her operator."

'At least HE didn't know who he was killing.'

"Jasmine Chiba. Yeah she was a member of the base back then. Fled after the heartless attacked but stayed on Earth X. She tried coming back to the base from what I heard but of course…"

"The Heartless got her…If only I knew what would happen to me. I could've stopped that."

'Oh hey look, another person with regrets.'

"Darkmega no one would've guessed you would be able to be changed. We all thought you had to die. You knew that when we met again. You saw how mad I was."

"Yeah…Earth V showed that side of you to me again. When Richard was taking control."

'Should've just shot us and Richard. Would've at least allowed Anna to live wouldn't it Chad? Maybe Roll wouldn't have suffered either.'

"…I can't apologize enough for that Darkmega."

"I know. I, I'm just glad that's over with and that bastard is locked away. Shame he isn't dead."

'Because we're not powerful enough to do anything about him. We're useless.'

Chad got up off the bed. "Okay you know what? Fuck off okay!? I tried to kill him! I used everything I could, and I even gained a power I haven't gotten back since and it wasn't enough! What more could I have done?!"

'And now you sound crazy. Good job.'

"Only because you're talking to me whilst Darkmega is!"

Darkmega's voice now spoke again. "Chad?"

Chad couldn't look at the cameras. He lowered his head. "Just…just go Darkmega. I can't focus on you now. I wish I could but…I need to be alone."

Two more days pass by.

Chad just laid there on the bed. His body hurt from the lack of movement, weakened by his inaction. He was sweaty, clammy, his chest and stomach were in pain.

Dr Richard had spoken to him recently. He recognized the symptoms and confirmed to Chad the dark soul was reaching it's peak of trying to take control.

What Chad hadn't expected lately…was his conscience. Which was now sitting beside him on the bed in his mobian red hedgehog form.

It spoke. "It's now day five in our little prison. Are you comfy?"

Chad could only groan out.

"The dark soul could still take some time. Which is making me wonder…" his conscience rubbed its chin. "What will happen on the seventh day?"

"What…what are you talking about?"

"Well, we have a routine don't we every seven days? We always make sure his trapped away, like we are together. But now we've hit a snag."

"He…He won't…notice."

His conscience looked down at him, looking disappointed. "So, you'll just wait for that time to pass without acting huh? Not like you…but then again you haven't been yourself for so long now I guess its expected. But remember, if we can just keep track of time here, what makes you think he can't?"

Chad tried to roll over to look away from his conscience…staring at the white wall before him. His conscience was reflecting in it.

"We should just accept what we must do and leave. Who cares if you puke out there or in here? We can handle the dark soul once it escapes, but he is different. If we don't keep up our routine—"

"We will, be fine." Chad flatly told himself.

"You know…you could teleport out of here. The docs are clever to place a barrier on the door but not anywhere else. Easy in, easy out. We could go and check him quickly then come back. It'll give you the reassurance you need to get through this."

"Just leave me alone, please."

He heard Dr Wily's voice on the communication system. "Chad? Chad how are you?"

"Go away. Everyone just…please…It hurts so much right now."

"…Alright Chad. We'll be keeping a close eye on you now. Just hold out."

He conscience laughed. "Them? A close eye on something? Please we both know how stupid the doctors really are."

"…Dr Wily? Can you see anyone else inside my cell?"

Dr Wily answered him. "No. it's just you, why?"

"Nothing. I just, wanted to have a little reality check."

He heard his conscience get up off the bed. "Sure sure believe that solves anything for you. It is your own mind projecting me Chad. Of course only you can see me!"

"Then kindly sleep and stop annoying me. I have something I need to get rid of."

"You won't be able to. Not for a long time."

Dr Wily had, meanwhile, left the room with Light Rich taking over to watch Chad and headed to the hospital.

It was now evening time. The sun slowly going down outside. Inside the hospital room, was Dr Richard, Dr Light, Dr Regal who had come from the Mute Gaia base and Dr Hikari. Dr Wily spoke the moment he entered "Chad is on the last stages. Soon that dark soul will be out of him."

"Are we sure the room with contain the creature?" Dr Light asked his friend.

Wily nodded. "Most certainly. We've cut off the water supply to the toilet and sealed the piping system. It won't be able to get out. All we have to do is the moment we see it, we teleport Chad to safety."

"Then we'll have two dark souls stored away in here that's…that's something, I guess?" Dr Regal folded his arms. "But what do we do with them? One can't die and this one might be the same."

Dr Hikari spoke up. "Actually, we cannot be sure if that's the case. Richard's dark soul is a unique entity of unusual power. This is a regular dark soul. We could turn on the containment system and incinerate it. Job done."

"Well we're not just here to talk about that, are we? We need to talk about her…Dr Richard remind me what did Chad say before all this to you, Darkmega and Quickman?" Dr Light focused on the young scientist.

He sighed. "He said, he would think about it. Look it doesn't mean it's consenting to reset her though. I have pointed this out to you guys before."

Dr Wily frowned "But do you think he will be able to protect her like that after this? His been weakened even further thanks to trapping himself away. Coming out of there, he needs good news and relief."

Dr Hikari then argued for Albert. "I agree entirely. Plus Maylu has accepted Roll is gone. Hub is aware she'll be gone, and Quickman and Darkmega supported us to help get her reset. Chad isn't in a position anymore to decide. We need to do it for him."

Dr Light agreed as well. "I think it'll boost his morale on seeing her active. We want what's best for them both."

Dr Richard looked to his father. "And you?"

"I think the same. Chad is needed elsewhere other then hovering over something that's brain dead. Zuo Ci has a destiny for him."

"And that's good enough for you guys is it? Good enough to go and do what you want now? Chad gets into difficulty and you just want to do whatever you feel is needed?" the Hu-Navi was clearly agitated by them. "I should've seen this coming. Do it if you want. But I will note the fact I fully disagree with this decision as Chad isn't present." With that, he stormed out of the hospital room, roughing brushing past Wily.

"Are you alright father?" Regal walked over to the old man, who was glaring at the doorway where his grandson went.

"I'm fine." He focused back on the rest of them. "Make sure to note down in the files what he wanted. He would otherwise other get angrier later down the line with us. Let's part the process. By tomorrow she'll be a clean slate."

"We hope." Dr Hikari warned.

"If not, it's gonna open a new world of trouble for us." Dr Light turned and headed into the side room where Roll was.

* * *

Another day crept by.

Chad was staring across the room, his head on the pillow. He just wanted it to end now. He hadn't eaten for some time, he refused to drink. He gave up closing his eyes to rest.

His conscience had stopped talking to him. He was thankful for that. He was now trying to think about Mobius. Green Hill zone. Soon this'll end and he'll be able to run around freely. Happily, with little concerns.

Run through there, the ruins of chemical plant, casino, the old ruins…

"But what about me?"

…That was not a voice he expected. He had blinked for one moment and leaning her back on the wall opposite him.

Was Roll.

He sat himself up. "R-Roll?"

"But if you run away, what will happen to me?" She looked sad as she stared at him. "I don't want to be alone in there Chad."

"…How is this possible?"

"Please Chad. Don't leave me."

Chad's face turned dark, as he quickly pieced it together. "Now you're playing tricks on me. I don't recall my conscience ever playing dirty before."

"Oh come now, why would I do that?" That was to his left. Roll vanished, and standing close to him now, was Anna…with a gaping hole in her chest, looking deathly pale. "I just want you to know what you'll have to face when this is all over."

"…Get out of that form. Right goddamn now."

"Why should I? Is facing reality so hard for you? Once you've removed the dark soul you'll go back to watching Roll…Except you will nowhere be as strong as you were, and your time has ran out."

"What?"

"Chad. It's been seven days. By this evening, he'll know."

"N-No it hasn't been seven days! It's been six! I know that!" Chad shut his eyes, trying to think real hard about the time. Sweat pouring down his head as the pain in his chest had gotten worse.

"He'll come after me soon." It was Roll's voice again. "You slept right through the sixth day. It's now the seventh…please don't let him take me too."

"Stop it!"

"The same words you keep saying to me."

…That was Richard. He was standing directly in front of Chad as the mobian lad looked up at him in the face.

"Over and over again in the hologram room. But once I get out, I can't be stopped. Not by you or anyone here…She'll be mine. You'll lose another…maybe even more on my rampage through this place. Tell me, can you tolerate a pile of bodies waiting for you thanks to your choice to not act?"

Chad forced himself up off the bed, pain now in his legs as he was wobbling, struggling to balance. "I won't let him! It's the sixth day I KNOW IT!"

"No you don't Chad. You think you do, but you know who I am."

Chad blinked, and Richard was gone. In his place was his conscience…but now it's irises were golden instead of blue like his.

"I'm a part of you. We need to leave."

"You've changed."

"Hm?" In a second, the irises turned back blue. "That's merely yourself playing tricks, delusion thanks to hunger and thirst. We can't stay anymore Chad. We must go. Time is almost up."

"I'm not leaving this room until the dark soul quits and leaves me."

"It won't be out for a long time Chad. Stop believing it will be soon. You can't wait."

"I can. I will."

"Listen to me! We must leave to save Roll!"

"We have to STAY to save Roll!"

"You're a fool if you honestly think that!"

"And you need to be quiet and leave me ALONE!" Chad yelled that last word out, and felt his legs give up, falling and hitting the warm metal floor, twitching.

His vision blurred, as black tears started dipping out as well as black bile escaping his mouth. It was all moving to the center of the room, forming a puddle, slowly getting larger and larger.

The bile and tears stopped and Chad felt the pain in his chest and stomach were gone, but he was completely weak and unable to move…as the black puddle began to rise up and take shape…into his red hedgehog form.

It spoke, in a more sadistic tone than his own. "Well, I tried. You could've come with me Chad. I could've made you powerful without having the need to kill you."

"My, my dark self…Angelus…"

It chuckled. "That's what she called me alright. I like it. Angelus, better then joining in with Darkmega and be called Dark Chad or directly taking over your position and calling myself Chad, and better than being your conscience this entire time…but, speaking of that, I need a way out. And killing you and disguising myself as you are no doubt my best bet." The red hedgehog transformed into Chad's human form.

But this one had dark brown hair, golden eyes, a purple shirt instead of red and black jeans instead of blue. In his hand formed a blood red energy version of the blade of darkness. "Sorry to say but our time together needs to come to an end. You can close your eyes…think of Roll, the girl you've failed."

"Fuck, you."

Angelus raised his weapon, but quickly noticed that a brief blue energy surrounded Chad, before he vanished. "Teleportation?!"

A voice spoke from the communication point of the cameras. "Sorry 'Angelus', but did you think no one would be watching?"

Angelus was pissed, snarling the name out. "Dr Albert Wily."

"Your certainly an interesting looking dark soul. I wish we could experiment on you, but unfortunately we already have one problem here and we don't need you."

With that, hundreds of small black cylinders came out of the walls, all with lit up flames coming out the front of them, ready to fire.

Angelus laughed a little, glaring at the camera. "Well now's the best time to test one of my theories isn't it? CHAOS CONTROL!"

The flames were unleashed, covering the entirety of the room…

But Dr Wily saw on his screen the red flash of energy, before Angelus was gone. He quickly typed on the computer and an alarm was heard blaring throughout the base as Dr Wily got on his com-link "Containment breach people! Be on the look out for someone that looks like Chad! It is a dark soul I repeat! A dark soul!"

What he didn't know was Angelus had now appeared outside the base, listening to the alarm going off as he smiled in his little victory he just pulled off, rain pouring down all around him. "Sorry doc, but I don't intend to stick around here. I'm going to find some new friends…and then I'll be back to deal with every one of you."

He transformed once again into his mobian form, except now the fur on him was a dark golden colour as he sped off away from the base and the grasslands around it.

* * *

Chad had blacked out after the teleportation.

When he woke, he found Medi standing near him. He knew where he was straight away. The hospital. His clothing all in a near pile on a table nearby, his naked body bar pants covered by the grey sheet. He slowly tried to force himself up, noticing two drips connected to his arms. His mouth as dry as anything and his weak sounded croaky and weak. "What, what happened to, Angelus?"

Medi smiled sweetly as she checked on his drips and motioned him to rest, which he did so after a little persuasion. "We were on a state of alert for a few hours hunting for him. Wily tried to incinerate him but he escaped via Chaos Control. Shadow is working with the docs in order to block that energy sort next time."

Chad was thankful this bed was much more comfortable than what he had to put up with the last few days. "So, he got away?"

"Clean getaway. No trace in the networks, nothing found throughout the base. The docs are keeping an active eye out on the radar system should another Chad pop up."

"Another Chad." He weakly laughed, feeling his forehead and noticing a wet cloth over it to keep him cool. "That's all we need."

Medi chuckled a little. "Exactly what Dr Wily said."

"So, how long have I been in here Medi?"

"Eight hours. We've had to supply your body with food supplements and liquid to help you recover. I strongly recommend you eat before you leave. Anything you can think of?"

"Deep fried chicken and chips from Spaceys?"

"Nothing from takeaways Chad."

"Aww…What about some beef with gravy? Roast potatoes?"

"Something light."

"…Chicken and chips again?"

"With veg."

"Come on Medi you're being mean now."

Medi walked away from Chad and was typing on the computer for the kitchen machines to prepare some food.

"So, anything else happened whilst I was out of it?"

"Yeah." Medi soon grabbed a data pad device, walking back over to Chad. "We had a new girl arrive here five days ago. Pink hair, red eyes, can't talk well at all. She looked quite injured and the docs have given her a room until they can figure out where she came from…well, WE try to figure out. The two docs Albert and Thomas seemed to have an idea who brought her here but still want to send her home in time."

Chad paused for a moment. "…Is her name, Lucy?"

"No. I don't think so. I don't think she has a name at all. I've yet to compile the medical data on her."

"I see…what about Richard?"

Medi looked at him. "…Dr Richard or—"

"The other one, yes."

"His still locked away. He asked Dr Regal how you were and hoped Angelus wasn't giving you too much trouble."

"…How in the fuck is he aware about Angelus?"

Medi shrugged. "Beats me. He just knew somehow. I don't know if his aware of Angelus escaping though."

"We need to make sure he isn't aware of that. If he knows Angelus could get out he might follow suit."

"I'll let the docs know in a moment…well so far your vitals look good Chad. Muscles need some slow and steady exercising mind you."

"And…the dark soul? Is there anything left?"

Medi shook her head. "We've gave you a complete diagnostic the moment you arrived. You're all clean and liked Hub and Dr Richard, you now have a strong tolerance for using dark chips as you've adapted."

"Trust me I won't be touching them anytime soon…so what about Roll?"

Medi stopped working, staring at her data pad.

"Medi?"

Medi put the pad down next to the bed. "…You need to talk with the docs."

That set off alarm bells in his head. It was enough to give him the strength to sit up properly. "Medi what's happened to her? Is she alright? Is she dead?!"

"I can say she's alive. But, you need to talk with them. She's probably in the main room right now trying to adjust to what's going on. Dr Wily and Light made sure no one else was there but them, Regal and Hikari. Dr Richard has yet to see her."

"She's probably in the—She's active again!? They've saved her!?" He was smiling, relieved. "Oh thank Blind Io I knew they could do something for her."

"Chad, no."

"…? Medi?"

"…"

It took several minutes, but slowly it sunk in as he added it all up. "…They did it didn't they? They reset her."

"I'm sorry Chad. I wish they could've helped her but—CHAD!"

He forced himself off of that bed. His legs were signalling to him of the number of aches and pains were going through them as his muscles were struggling to adjust, but he ignored them. He removed the grey sheet and stumbled his way over to the hospital door, Medi following him, trying to coax him back to the bed for rest.

The door opened.

There she was. Roll. She was standing there in the middle of the room, staring up at the night sky through the glass ceiling. Dr Wily, Light, Hikari and Regal were around her, telling her about the place when Wily and Hikari heard the hospital door…and were alarmed at spotting Chad.

Dr Wily quickly spoke to him. "Chad what the hell are you doing! Go back inside and rest! Now!"

"Roll! ROLL!" Chad called out to her, pushing himself out of the hospital walking a few more steps.

Roll looked over to him, which made him stop…she appeared confused. "I'm sorry? Are you speaking to me?"

"R…no. You don't know that name now…" Chad looked to each of the doctors. "Wh-why? Why did you do this to me!?"

That's when Dr Richard walked in from one of the corridors. "Alright docs, I'm here now. How did it go with the reset…" He spotted Chad. "Oh, this is, awkward."

Dr Wily tried to explain "Chad I wanted to do this for you! You clearly had an interest in sorting this problem out, so we went ahead and—"

"I never said yes to it Wily! I never said yes!"

"It's done now Chad! I'm sorry it's done!"

Chad was mad as all hell, but he stopped himself from trying anything, he knew he was too weak, he could feel the pain now.

"Is, he okay?" Roll asked the doctors.

"He will be. I should introduce you both I suppose. Chad, her new name…well, Navi's normally default to 'Net Navi' but for some strange reason she's defaulted to a different name—"

Roll spoke up, waving a little at Dr Richard then at Chad. "My name is Ruth. It's a pleasure to meet you both…so, um, Chad was it? Shouldn't you be resting back in the hospital?"

Dr Richard eyes went wide on hearing that name, his mouth agape and the colour vanished from his skin before he locked eyes with his gramps.

Chad meanwhile, fell to his knees. What strength he had gave away at hearing her new name. "I still failed…I still, couldn't…I'm so sorry…"

* * *

Notes:

1\. Angelus' name came from the old tv series 'Angel' which was used for Chad's evil self in the MSN stories of old.

2\. Phantom was from the Devil May Cry series.

3\. Diamas is based on the appearance of Link but wears more darker attire due to his previous state of mind and evil actions.

-dragonridley


	3. Ruth Bullen

Chad was sitting on bed within the hospital room once again.

He was dressed now. Besides his bed was a small plate of food. Gone cold.

In front of him sitting on another bed, was, formerly known as Roll, now calling herself Ruth.

She had removed her helmet and was holding onto it near her stomach, staring at Chad, her metallic hair turned organic.

They both could hear shouting and yelling outside of the hospital.

Medi had just left them, giving them a moment to catch Dr Richard shouting out "YOU! YOU ALL KNEW ABOUT THIS!? YOU MADE HER INTO THAT!? WHY? WHY DID—" then the door closed.

Chad wasn't sure what to say to Ruth. He was hurt by what has happened, that he didn't get to properly say goodbye to Roll…but now here was her replacement, and she looked as she was in as much of an awkward position as he was. She kept looking at him, not sure what to do.

He decided to finally speak. "So, this, isn't how you expected coming to life would be like, huh?"

"Well as I had no expectations I was not sure what was going to happen. It all seemed so peaceful before you came out and said that name…Roll was it?"

Chad still struggled with the fact Roll, what was her, didn't know the name. "Y-yeah. She's an old friend of mine. I seriously thought you looked like her…sorry."

"It's okay. Um, these things happen, I guess? Was she the same type of Navi?"

"Uh yeah. Yeah she was. Unique like you…So…when did you, wake up?"

Ruth thought about this for a moment. "Twenty one thousand and seven hundred and fifty two seconds ago."

Chad just stared at her.

"…OH! Right! Sorry, still adjusting with my systems and didn't round it into minutes and such! Just a little over six hours."

"What have you learnt so far Ruth?"

"Wellll…" She smiled at him. "I learnt we're in the Hero Base on Earth X. We're a organization that allows people from across the galaxies to come and join us and that my default first name is Ruth! Oh, and I know the doctors and their qualifications, their family—"

Dr Richard is barely heard shouting still.

"—bar one, and that I'm a welcome member to this place!"

Chad smiled a little. "Well, you always will be welcome here, Ruth."

"Oh! I also learnt that I have a special ability!" She placed her helmet back on, and the antennas activated. "I have these!" They slowly drooped downwards, allowing her to stroke and feel them. "The doctors say I can access information with them to learn about this place, the people and the worlds around it. Yet they want me to wait for a few days before doing so."

Chad raised his eyebrow a little. "Why would they want you to…" He soon guessed why and sighed in misery.

Of course. Remove the existence of Roll from the databanks to avoid confusion for Ruth.

"So uh…What's your full name?"

"Huh?"

"Full name?"

"Oh, Chad Oswald."

"My name is—"

Just then Dr Richard and Dr Wily came in with Dr Richard pointing a finger at Ruth. "You're telling me that this might not be—"

"—Ruth Bullen." Ruth finished, before looking at them, confused. "Um, hello?"

Dr Richard came to a dead stop. As he slowly turned to face his grandfather, Wily glared at him and said "Not another word. Not in here. We'll talk in the labs. I promise."

There was just silence between them, as Ruth focused back on Chad. "So, can I learn more information about you if I can't access anywhere else at the moment?"

"Okay, sure. So um, where do you want to start?"

"Anywhere I guess?"

Dr Richard meanwhile started to talk to Dr Wily. "I swear to Azrael you have royally fucked my life over with this! What in the hell gramps!?"

Dr Wily was motioning him to keep his cool. "I did it with the best intentions, believe me. Now if we could go elsewhere?"

Chad started talking as Ruth let her antennas go back up. "Well okay. I'm from the planet mobius and—" Chad placed his hand on his chest to motion to himself without thinking.

Her antennas came forward, stretching over as Chad placed his hand on his chest…and phased into said chest, beginning to extract data, little 1's and 0's rapidly appearing on them.

"WHAT IN THE FUCK!?" Chad screamed and swiped at the antennas, knocking them away and shocking Ruth who had flinched at his reaction.

Dr Wily was staring, whilst Dr Richard was once again, in utter shock. "That, that shouldn't even be possible. He, he's a mobian isn't he!? That shouldn't work on flesh right!?"

Dr Wily could see the utter fear and confusion on Chad's face, the deep concern and worry Ruth had, wondering if she just offended or hurt Chad, and the eventual accusing look of Dr Richard he was giving his gramps. "…Oh Ruth, what have you just done…"

* * *

"You said you would succeed, yet here you stand with little else than excuses for your failures! Phantom is dead and cannot be revived! 'Chaos' is unpredictable and you allowed a chaotic being to interfere AND escape!"

The once beautiful land of the deities was now clouded. With a dark grey sky and thunder flashing and echoing around them, Blind Io stood on the stairway to his golden throne, looking down at Sephiroth who was on one knee, looking to the floor.

Zuo Ci was close by, having been summoned here as well after his attempt to capture the chaotic being…which didn't go how he liked. "Blind Io, we could not have predicted these results—"

Blind Io's eyes focused on him. "You are in no better position! You had attacked Beyondard! I warned you to only approach that world under Gabriel and my own strict orders yet you went there, attacking a sector of a city destroying several mortal homes and taking their lives in order to chase someone we already had our eyes on! She was not suppose to leave that world anytime soon yet you sent her away after you figured out she was not the one you wanted!"

"I was certain after Sephiroth's explanation my lord that it was her. The casualties were unfortunate I admit, but I have left her under the care of those I feel can help her recover fast before she returns to Beyondard."

"She CANNOT go back until the time is right, do you understand that Zuo Ci?!"

A flash of white light occurred nearby, and standing with them now, was Gabriel, who gave a brief bow. "Lord Blind Io. I have news of Chaos' replacement."

Blind Io slowly returned to his throne and sat upon it. "Alright, speak."

"…The First has left us."

So much for sitting down. Blind Io had quickly stood up in shock of that news. "He left the guardian circle of Azrael's core!? Why!?"

"Tension between us was occurring since Kel'Thurzard allowed Diamas to leave. There's some doubt as to what Ingrid wants and the First was being much more vocal and demanding since the loss of Chaos. Broly ousted him and Ingrid confirmed he would not return to our hideout."

"Where did he go?"

Gabriel shrugged. "No one knows now. His quick to hide himself away from our sight. Most likely returning to the dead world he and Kel'Thurzard came from. Nevea."

Zuo Ci seemed to think of something then. "My lord, we may have a way to salvage the game afterall. Chaos was suppose to bring about the awakening of three beings and the return of Unicron to begin Chad's change into Primus, was he not? We can still make it happen and drag the First back into this game without his knowledge of it being our doing."

"How so?" Blind Io looked over to him.

Zuo Ci smiled a little, before he turned to Gabriel. "Chaos was very thorough with the use of backups. I'm sure there must be one of the program I had stopped the other chaotic being from giving to Diamas. I know he placed it in battlechips."

Gabriel frowned. "The Shinra Federation has the head now. They would've found the backup and extracted it to look it over or store it away for later."

"Then would this not be a perfect chance for Sephiroth, with his vast knowledge of Gaia VII, to retrieve it?"

Blind Io rubbed his chin slightly, thinking about this. "…I believe Sephiroth needs to be redeem himself in my eyes. Very well, but you will follow him Zuo Ci. Explain to him what it looks like and make sure he succeeds."

Sephiroth finally got up from his bowing position. "I will not fail."

"See to it that you do not."

* * *

Chad now stood in the cryo room, now without Roll being present.

Instead there was Dr Wily and Dr Richard. Dr Richard was standing in a corner of the room, leaning his back on the wall, arms folded glaring at his grandfather. Dr Wily had sat down on the chair Chad used to use to visit Roll here, resting his hands on his cane.

Ruth was being seen to by Medi, who moved her over to the labs to avoid overhearing anything.

Since then, there had been nothing but silence between the three. Dr Wily was just waiting for the questions. He could've called Dr Light in as Thomas had asked him once Dr Wily contacted his friend to know he wanted time alone with Chad and Dr Richard, but he refused.

Dr Richard was clearly pissed off beyond anything at this stage. He was showing utter disdain whilst staring his grandfather down.

Chad…Chad still tried to come to terms what he had just experienced. Combined with all this time of isolation with Roll and his dark self, the pain and starvation, it was all getting a bit much and he needed to think of what he wanted to say before doing so.

Dr Richard at long last, spoke between them. "Why?"

Dr Wily sighed. "I knew you would despise me more if you knew she was alive with no memories of her human life, then if I told you she was dead."

"I would've at least tried to reach her instead of isolating myself from the world gramps! I would've tried something and kept myself going instead of letting you do THIS to me!" motioning at his body "And allowing you to create my dark self!"

"Merely a possibility Richard. You may not have. I concluded what I did. Nothing will change that. She lived a pleasant life as Maylu's Net Navi for the past seven years since that girl was nine. I had monitored her from afar and insured she would come to the base to that I can continue to do so."

"Could you have saved her? Or was she another one of your sick experiments into the limits of what can be mixed between Navi and Human?"

Dr Wily sighed. "Richard, you know she meant a lot to me. She had a special place in our family. You both were special. Myself and Light knew what we had to do to salvage her. Her body didn't survive no matter what treatment we gave, the effects of Chaos and Phazon energy was overwhelming it."

Dr Richard unfolded his arms. "So it was Hub all over again for you guys. Their dead, better take a piece of them and make them anew!"

"It's the hope that their human side remains, complete with their memories. Hub was a baby and had little to no memories. Ruth had memories but they didn't resurface."

"Why? Why didn't they? What did you old idiots do wrong?!"

"Don't you speak to me like that boy!" Dr Wily snapped. "We did everything we could for her but they didn't come back! It's all to do with their souls and things that are beyond our current understanding. Zuo Ci knew but he refused to help like he refused to with YOUR problems!"

"And after she was dropped of under the care of Maylu you just gave up entirely?"

"No! I keep hoping someday it'll resurface slowly! That at some point without us having to break the news of what she was, she would begin the recall process!"

"Well congrats old man! She has! She knows her name now!"

Dr Wily stood up, looking over at the table where Roll once was. "No that's happened before. When we first woke her she said that name. It made me falsely believe the recall of memories was a success. Further checks proved otherwise. Hu-Navis seem to recall their names in the past perfectly if nothing else. Hub heard his mother call him that, and he retained it when he first woke up."

"So why was she called Roll huh? Was it because Dr Light had a Roll? Her teddy bear? Or…"

Dr Wily stared at him.

"Really? After that bitch?"

"She was respectable and had a vast knowledge of genetics. She knew the program perfectly."

"She didn't care for anyone! She tortured us!"

"She was doing it in the name of science!"

"IT WAS ALL A FAILURE! ALL OF US HAVE FAILED!" Dr Richard was yelling now.

"NO!" Dr Wily smacked the end of his stick on the ground, getting frustrated. "Not all were miserable failures like you! You've been interacting with him for these least three months! He may be slow on the uptake but his intelligence is predicted to surge by the time he reaches 20! His still going according to plan!"

"Miserable failures like—" Dr Richard started to storm over to his grandfather, ready to punch him, finally having had enough of him.

"Guys?"

Dr Richard stopped as he was inches away from Dr Wily. Both looked over to Chad, who was finally looking at them both.

"Am I a Hu-Navi? Am I like Roll?"

Dr Richard stepped away from Dr Wily, allowing the old man to talk to Chad.

Dr Wily felt a little relief for Chad's timely question. "Chad, you're more akin to Richard here. You have actual signs of organic genes whereas Hu-Navi's like Roll-Ruth and Hub are more 'previously human, now Navis'. They have a human factor which makes them different, but you could still be seen as a human."

"…Explain it to me, please."

Dr Wily sat back down, resting his hands again on his staff, thinking for a moment. "…Net Navi's and Hu-Navis. Net Navi's are regarded as a superior to robots. They have the matching human intelligence, emotions and feelings robots can achieve, but they can be easily repaired and updated and use a wider array of technology, able to access places no one else can at such an in-depth level."

He sat back a little, continuing on. "But they have flaws. The Real program allowed them access to our world, and the Life program allowed them to breed, eat, drink, breathe and die like us. But we cannot cover all aspects. Say for example you had to choose between a red apple or a green apple. You would pick whatever suits you. A Navi would go through a calculation and decide what is best for their personality system and their body requirements."

"Now, what if you had to pick between red apples, both healthy and in good condition, just both slightly different in colour patterns? You would pick whatever looks good…Navis can't."

Chad looked a little baffled. "Can't?"

"It's a system flaw. If there are equal chances and the calculations reach that conclusion, they struggle. Often you'll notice they'll leave the objects alone and find a third option. If there is no third option, it can be damaging to them to choose or accept whatever decision they make. A feedback loop can occur in their programming…and it can be fatal. They also suffer from the crest mark which allows them to stand out. If a Navi gets naked, without additional programming to hide it, their crest symbol would be embedded on a part of their skin, normally the chest. If damaged it can be rapidly fatal to them. It also flashes red when a Navi is low of energy or is in severe distress, so long as the crest location hasn't been damaged."

"So…Medi has a picture of her crest on her chest?" Chad asked.

"No, she has the additional program that hides it. Without that program, the crest would be on her back. The crest symbolises where the persons core programming is. Damage that, and you kill the Navi. When the Navi wears clothing they often wear an actual crest on their being to show what they are and where the core program is. Medi as well as some Navi's install programs to avoid that obvious reveal. When you can't see their crest, the only other way you can tell they're a Navi is by scans, and by making them bleed."

"When a Navi bleeds, they produce data fragments instead of blood. There are also programs to make them look like they bleed like anyone else but the blood still produces small fragments as it departs from the Navi to show what they are. The obvious giveaway if you need to know."

"Hu-Navi's like Ruth and Hub don't have the crest symbol on their skin naturally. Their core programs remain where a human heart would be. They also have the ability to bypass the system flaw of choosing. They could pick an apple based solely on it's pattern. They are able to pick if they want a crest, which is disconnect-able at any time…Then there's you and Dr Richard."

"You can appear human, bleed like a human, live like one with minimal differences besides an ability to use battlechips, jack into computer systems, use Navi related tech and hold the unique feature of being able to sustain yourself within an energy deprived location. Hu-Navis like Ruth and Navis would be forced to return to a computer system to survive in such areas."

Dr Wily slowly walked over to Chad. "You though, you have one more unique feature. You're not just human. You're Mobian…and something else. We have been unable to identify the last part of your gene series, but you've been made most wonderfully. Whoever created you did so with dedication and focus, beyond what we've done with our own Hu-Navis."

"…Who made me Dr Wily?" Chad had to ask.

"…" Dr Wily looked down for a moment, before looking straight at Chad. "The programming code suggests Thomas Light did so, as well as one other."

"Dr Light created him?" Dr Richard looked a little surprised.

"No. Not our Thomas. He assures me he has never made anything like Chad. I can believe that as I know everything his done over the years. He was just as baffled as I was when we saw his coding in the scans. The other person remains a mystery as it doesn't match anyone we know in our database."

"Who knows about me? What I really am?" Came Chad's next question.

"Myself, Thomas, Yuichiro, Regal, Lan, Hub, Laserman, Shademan, Rock and his siblings Roll and Blues, Forte and Medi."

"Wait if Hub knew, Darkmega should've known."

Dr Wily stopped Chad by briefly raising his hand. "Hub and Lan were only made aware on your return from that 'white void' you told me about after Master Hand was killed. We kept that information away from them at first."

"And why was it kept away from me?"

"Because you told me to not tell you."

Chad was shocked. "I did? When? I never even knew until—"

Again Dr Wily stopped him. "You told me 30 years ago, before you were even created."

Chad just looked at him like he was a looney. "Doc come on."

"You told me yourself, outright admitting you're from the future."

"I…Wait I time travel to the past at some point?" Chad was, surprised about this info, to say the least.

"That's what you'll do. You find me and Thomas, and after we figured out your non-human status, you told us about yourself?"

"Why was I back there?"

"I can't tell you that. You'll find out eventually."

Chad went silent.

"Now, if both of you don't mind, I need to check up on Ruth to see if she's okay after your reaction earlier Chad." Dr Wily started to walk away from Chad.

When the boy spoke again. "You don't want her to access our databanks yet."

Dr Wily stopped. "Correct."

"Because you want to delete all traces of Roll."

"…And to give us a chance to inform everyone in the base that her name is now Ruth. We don't need an identity crisis from her."

Chad rubbed his arm a little, before focusing on Dr Wily. "Please don't erase her. Keep her data files, who she was and what she did here. Get rid of her pictures if you must but please. Let her be remembered."

"…Get yourself cleaned up. Eat and rest. I'll see what I can do." Dr Wily then left the room. This left Dr Richard who only stayed for a moment more, before walking out himself.

He encountered Medi, who had just returned to the hospital. "Hey."

"How's Chad?" She asked him as she headed over to the computer.

"His, still a little shocked. He'll be out soon enough to go and get some rest. How's Ruth?"

"Ruth is, worried. She didn't want to scare him and wants to apologise but I told her she could do so another time."

Dr Richard nodded. "Yeah, for now we need to focus on getting her adjusted to her life. Chad can wait. I'll speak to you later." With that, he left the hospital.

What he didn't spot was the blank battlechip Medi was carrying.

* * *

Chad found himself in his bathtub. The steam flowing upwards, the bubbles covering most of him, all but his hands as he was staring at them.

He wasn't a mobian.

He was part of four things. Three he knew, the forth he didn't.

There was blood coming from an open wound on his left hand. He had cut himself with his sword. He had to check, to see if there was any visible sign he was a Navi.

It was blood, plain and simple as far as he could see it. There was pain too.

That was human enough, yet when Ruth used those antennas…

He sighed, keeping his wounded hand above the water as he leaned back. Gods he was so tired right now. This was the first bath his had since that day he battled Richard. He showered once every week.

He knew he needed to shave this beard off at some point. He needed a haircut. His hair grew normally…that's human too.

'Makes you wonder when we went from mobian to this nightmare doesn't it?' his conscience spoke in his mind.

"It does. Have we always been like this or…or did something happen to us? Are we the same like Ruth? Hub? Did we die?"

'It's possible. But Dr Wily said we're more akin to Dr Richard. He didn't die to be part Navi. I wonder if Anna knew…'

"…I still miss her."

'You know who else might know what you are don't you?'

"I'm not ready to talk to him. He can wait."

Soon, Chad got himself out of the bath, placing his grey dressing gown on, looking at his wounded hand once more…still bleeding.

He didn't want to use a recovery chip. Not even simple bandages. He walked into his bedroom and laid down on his bed on his back, looking up at the ceiling.

'Your father would know too.'

"Chaos? I don't think he wants to speak to me. He seemed much more hostile despite what he revealed. Maybe it was a trick?"

'Only to seemingly perish afterwards and not join in again till now? Something doesn't add up.'

He closed his eyes…and soon fell into the world of slumber.

Then he heard his door open…and a voice speaking out to him.

" _You naïve fool. I could never be contained."_

His eyes quickly opened.

It was night time. The lights were off.

He forced himself up and looked to his door.

…It was wide open…and there was a blood trail leading out.

Chad got off the bed and didn't bother getting dressed. He grabbed the blade of darkness with his right hand, as his left felt extremely sore and painful now the wound had clotted up. There was a small puddle of blood on his bed where his hand was.

He left the room, seeing the blood on the floor lead down the corridor…he could hear the faint shuffling of feet. The dimmed lights were not helping him any at this moment.

He slowly moved, bare foot, through the corridor trying to hold his sword ready. Something felt seriously wrong, and his little bout of rest hadn't helped ease his tension any.

He noticed the blood was leading to the main room…on arriving there, he saw someone standing in the shadows, where the blood trail ended…He quickly aimed his sword towards the person. "Alright, who the hell are you!?"

There was no answer. Chad cursed, of course the mysterious person wouldn't speak.

As he moved closer though, he could make out the figure more…The blonde hair, the sunglasses, the black clothing.

Chaos.

Chad was now in the middle of the main room, facing Chaos who remained in the darkness. "So, dad. It's you. What the hell do you want?"

…Nothing.

"Answer me! What's with the blood!?"

Still nothing.

Now Chad was concerned. Chaos isn't one for silence like this. He moved closer…and noticed there was a small stream of blood coming from the mouth of Chaos.

"C-Chaos?" Chad reached out to him with his wounded hand.

Chaos suddenly fell forward, making Chad quickly place both his hands on his sword in panic, trying to ignore the snap pain coming from his left hand.

As Chaos hit the ground face down, his back had clearly been torn open, a huge chunk of it was missing…and with the red markings down the back of his clothing, it's clear it was he who left the blood trail.

"No…No not again…" Chad was trying to digest what he was seeing, when something else happened.

Chaos was slowly transforming, his image fading away as another figure took his place, one Chad had not expected to see like this.

Sephiroth. His wing outstretched, bare with no feathers and bloody, his hair sharing the same colour, and still having the massive hole in his back.

"What, in the fuck…Sephiroth?" Chad moved towards the silver haired man, bending down to him. "Are you…?"

He checked for any sort of life sign.

There was none.

"N…Nyu…"

Chad had heard that, from the corridor he came from. He quickly looked over.

There was a young girl, about his age, with pink long hair and red eyes, wearing a grey overall with nothing on her feet, looking completely terrified, trying to hold Sephiroth's sword in her hands. Straight away he noticed the fact she looked closely to Lucy…but also the fact was she wasn't looking at Chad.

She was looking up at the glass ceiling.

Chad turned and looked up himself. And for but a few moments, he saw a shadowy figure…with twelve claws being wrapped up by something before vanishing,

His whole body and mind filled with dread and panic. "No…no no NO NO NO!" He legged it.

He was running down the corridor, shoving past the girl whilst yelling at her "MOVE GODDAMNIT!" all he heard was her yell out "NYU!" before hitting the floor and dropping Sephiroth's blade.

He quickly got on the com-link. "WILY! WILY WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY!"

He heard a grumble on the other end. "Chad? What do you—"

"RICHARD'S GOT OUT! SOMEHOW HIS GOT OUT! ALERT EVERYONE! FIND OUT WHERE ROLL—I MEAN RUTH IS! NOW! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!"

"Wait what!?"

In seconds he heard the base alarm go off, waking everyone up.

Chad had to see. How, how in the hell did he escape? Did he tear the door down? Did he destroy the walls? Trick someone before killing them…his mind went to the worst conclusion.

Ruth went there, no longer knowing him, and let him out.

"Please, please Azrael don't let her! Don't let her be that unlucky!"

As soon as he arrived in the corridor where Richard's prison is, he saw two other people coming up to the door he was aiming for, Dr Richard and Darkmega.

Chad got to it and rushed into the room.

The steel door was still in place. He quickly glanced around. No sign of damage. He dropped the blade of darkness before he rushed to the computers and turned on the screen.

And came to a dead stop, as the alarm continued to blare on around him and Dr Richard and Darkmega entered the room.

There was Richard, sitting there, still cross legged and head down as his always been.

He wasn't moving despite all the noise, which should attract anyone's attention…

Chad clicked on a possibility.

A fake. There was a fake in there. Somehow Richard snuck out! "I'm disabling the energy barrier and opening the door!"

Darkmega was horrified, especially as he spotting that Richard is in there on the screen. "Chad what the hell man STOP!"

"NO IT'S NOT HIM! HIS TRICKED US!" Chad quickly disabled the energy field and was about to press the button to open the door, Dr Richard grabbed his working hand.

"Stop it Chad! What the hell is wrong with you!?"

"LET GO! HIS TRICKED US! I SAW HIM!"

Chad tried to reach over to the button again, but now Dr Richard grabbed the rest of his arm and pulled him back. "He is still inside! You've gone nuts! Darkmega activate the barrier!"

"NO! NO NO NO!" Chad was desperately trying to reach the computer, swiping at Darkmega and Dr Richard alike. "LET ME GO! LET ME GO NOW!"

"Dr Richard!?" Darkmega managed to avoid Chad's aggressive strikes and reach the computer.

"Do it Goddamnit! I got him!" He just avoided another punch from the blooded left hand of Chad, now grappling him into a neck lock "Calm down will you!? CALM DOWN!"

"Heheheheh. You know I can hear all the commotion, right?"

Chad finally stopped, panting, trying to get his breath as Darkmega turned the barrier back on.

"So why are you, my light self and Darkmega all here huh? Did you miss me that much?"

Richard's head slowly looked up towards the camera, smiling evilly.

Darkmega looked over to Chad, whilst Chad made Dr Richard let go, elbowing him in the stomach before storming over to the computer making Darkmega move aside. "You! You got out!"

"I don't think so. I'm right here. You're looking at me, and I can smell all of you."

"You lie! I saw you! You killed Sephiroth! You were just leaving when I saw you!"

Richard chuckled. "Then why would I be here."

Chad heard Dr Richard on his com-link. "Gramps cancel the alert, dark self is still secure inside his prison. I suggest you come down here and—"

He spun around and looked infuriated at Dr Richard. "Don't you dare lower your fucking guard! He still could be tricking us! Where is Roll! Ruth! Whatever her name is! Check on her!"

"Oh, such a sweet tender thing. If only I could place my hand around her neck and squeeze again." Richard was heard saying.

Chad was quickly back at the screen. "You're not going near her or anyone else! YOU HEAR ME!?"

"You know I can almost hear your blood veins bursting. Still not eating that well? Not much sleep? You're getting paranoid."

"I saw you! I saw your claws!"

"Oh. You saw one of them."

Chad stopped. "…What?"

"You saw a result of the timeline divergence. An echo. A corrupted wave of energy given form of the one who brought about the divergence…me."

"The hell are you talking about?"

The alarms had turned off now.

"Thanks to us making a new timeline, the energy made from the result of…'our' decision, has to go somewhere. It turned into copies of me."

Dr Richard looked over. "That's impossible."

"No it isn't. You just never met it before…I've SEEN it all before remember Chad? Now one of them has decided to play my part. It certainly won't be on my level of power but it's going to hound you and play around to it's hearts content. Heheheh, I'm jealous."

"Don't you lie to us! I swear if you've touched her I'll—"

"Ruth is fine Chad. She stayed with Keira for the night. Keira reports she's safe." That was Dr Wily, who now walked in with Dr Richard and Darkmega getting out of his way.

Chad was relieved. Dr Wily meanwhile, walked over to the computer and kindly motioned at Chad to step aside. Dr Wily then focused on the camera feed and was checking the recordings of each one, as he was he spoke to Chad. "Chad, you're bleeding on the floor. I suggest you go to the hospital or use a recovery chip. And get dressed if you plan to stay awake."

Chad didn't answer. He wanted to know if Richard had left, even for a mili-second. Darkmega meanwhile gave him a recovery chip. "Hey."

Chad looked down at it and grabbed it, before placing it on his wrist, the chip activating and his wound on his hand healing up. "Thanks…and sorry."

"I didn't get hit."

The Hu-Navi looked over to Dr Richard now. "Sorry. I just, wanted to make sure."

"Well learn to keep a calm mind next time, or I won't be so gentle." Dr Richard replied whilst looking annoyed. "You're a wild card."

Chad turned back to Wily, who sighed knowing Chad is still there. "It's going to take some time Chad. I'll report to you later if there's anything unusual."

That's when Dr Wily's com-link went off. "Albert this is Thomas. I'm in the main room. We've got a report of blood on the floor from Chad's room to here, and we have a dead body as well as our newcomer with a minor head injury. What the hell happened?"

Wily looked over to Chad. "Chad?"

"…I was doing nothing, woke up and then shit got weird."

* * *

Chad tried to wait.

He returned to the main room, allowing Dr Light and the others to take Sephiroth's body and sword to the hospital cryo room whilst Dr Hikari and Medi helped with cleaning up the blood and Dr Regal helped the girl in the hospital recover from her head injury.

He had sat near one of the small metal tables, drumming his fingers, closing his eyes and waiting…

He felt himself begin to slip away, he wanted to open his eyes but his body refused to obey for the time being.

 _Soon his eyes opened. He was in the main room of the base on Zebes. Darkmega was sitting besides him, looking like as if his not been sleeping at all lately._

 _Chad focused on him, smiling. "So…Triplets huh?"_

" _Yep. Two boys and one girl." Darkmega sighed in relief, sitting back in his chair. "I can't believe I've got three children now."_

" _How's Medi feeling about it?"_

 _Darkmega smiled. "Overjoyed. I think she's been waiting to become a mom. With three kids, we're gonna be busy. I've also told her who the godparents are gonna be."_

 _Chad frowned a little. "You sure you want me and Light Rich to be that? I mean I'm always running around saving people, the universe and whatnot and Light Rich keeps getting caught up with Samus."_

" _Yeah, I'm sure. You both are great friends of mine."_

" _Heh…" Chad now sat back in the chair. "You know, I'm glad it's like this."_

" _Huh?" Darkmega looked at him._

" _I've had a strange dream lately. Richard was very, different. Much more crazy. Anna died and Roll…stopped being Roll. And Diamas was on our side in the base. Chaos got killed and said he was my…dad."_

 _Darkmega raised his eyebrow, a little baffled. "…So what you've been dreaming of another universe or something? A different timeline?"_

" _I have no idea. But I told Roll about it before she went off to her room and, she's been saying about dreams of another place. She doesn't know what to make of it. Nor do I."_

 _Darkmega simply dismissed it. "Guy, you had enough on your plate as it is. You had Fate to battle, a coin flip with Death, battling Chaos and Unicron as well as Angelus…You've been busy to say the least."_

" _Hmm…"_

" _Don't do that."_

" _What?"_

" _The 'Hmm'. I can't figure out if it means you're thinking or just accepting what I said."_

" _It's…a little bit of 'A' and a bit of 'B'? It's just how I try to answer and think at once."_

" _You do it all the time."_

 _Chad shrugged. "I have a lot to think about. Anyway, I'm gonna go and check on Anna…hopefully Duo and Zuo Ci can leave me alone for a few nights."_

Then, it all faded to black for Chad. He felt himself fall away from that place.

" _Hey, it's him. Can I—"_

" _Let him sleep. We need to offer you the modifications. He can see you after, it might cheer him up."_

" _I hope he still isn't upset with me."_

" _His…had a rough time of it. I'll explain."_

…

" _Zuo Ci…What brings you here?"_

" _Sephiroth. I require his body."_

" _No can do. We've yet to figure out what killed him. Chad said about Richard getting out."_

" _Has he?"_

" _No. No he hasn't, and that worries me. Come inside. We don't need Chad to wake up."_

…

" _Nyu…"_

" _Oh him? He's a nice guy when people aren't in danger."_

" _Nyu Nyu!"_

" _I wish I could understand what it is your saying…Come on, Medi is waiting for you back in the hospital for one last check up. Then we need to get you some proper clothes."_

…

"…So, is it common for you to be sleeping in this location in nothing but a gown?"

Chad started to wake up, feeling the side of his face had gone numb, having it resting on the metal table. Diamas was sitting opposite of him. "Mmm?"

"You've been sleeping for far too long. Medi asked me to wake you and tell you to go back to your room and get dressed."

Chad slowly forced himself to sit up. "Huh? Whattime is it?"

"It's four in the afternoon."

Chad looked a little surprised. Last he saw the clock it was 2 in the morning. "Really? I must've been exhausted…"

Diamas got up from the table. "Well I've done my part. Farewell." With that, Diamas headed off down one of the corridors. He didn't like hanging around Chad for long.

Chad yawned, stretching and standing up, before he too left the main room…he felt his stomach rumble and ache.

He was starving. He needed something to eat, and his lips felt dry so something to drink would help as well. The sleep seemed to remind his body he needed other vital things to stay alive.

Arriving at the corridor that had his room, he saw a certain Navi standing outside it, with a…unusually large syringe filled with red liquid. It was so large it matched her height and size.

Medi. She frowned a little as he approached. "Well look who's finally gotten some sleep and dragged himself out of the main room."

Chad tried to ignore the syringe. "What is it Medi? I got the message from Diamas."

"I just wanted to make sure you got here. Head on in, I'm going to sort you out."

Chad looked a little surprised. "Excuse me?"

"I mean arrange for you to have a shave and haircut. Get some new clothes on. Get some vitamins and nutrients in you and make sure you drink plenty."

"Oh…Well I normally head to the hologram room when it's time for a haircut Medi." Chad started walking into his room. "And I shave myself just fine. With clothing I'll make sure to put a new set of my old stuff back on to make myself seem a little-YEOW!" Chad catapulted forward, rolling over his bed and hitting the floor on the other side, landing on his backside.

He quickly looked over and saw Medi slowly lift the now empty syringe which had a tiny drop of blood on it, having walked in behind him. "There we go. Vitamins and nutrients for your body, as well as some wake up drugs, a little caffeine, a little speed…the good stuff. Be thankful I set this to rapid inject for Navis."

"What the hell woman!? You didn't have to do that!" Chad felt his butt throbbing. That needle got it quite deep in the cheek before he registered what she did.

"Well it'll help. Now sit on the bed and let me handle your hair and beard."

"I can do it myself thanks." He was frowning at her.

"Sit. Down."

Chad slowly got himself up off the floor and did as he was told, whilst Medi closed the door and made the syringe turn into data fragments before vanishing.

He felt what she had put in him begin to flow around his body. To him the world seemed to go dull, whilst Medi was standing before him and was cutting his hair, saying something to him.

His mind had shut off. He just let her do what she wanted whilst his body accepted what it was given. It felt like a rush, but at the same time he felt no need to move around.

After a few minutes of this state, Medi bent down and looked at him in the face with a look of concern, before making a small syringe appear in her other hand whilst one held a pair of scissors and injected some blue fluid into his arm.

After she moved the syringe away she went to his desk, grabbed one of the two plastic cups that are always there for him to fill with water and went over to his bathroom. Soon she was back and handed him some water.

That snapped him out this funk. His mind screamed for a drink and before he knew it he was downing the liquid. He soon got up off the bed and rushed to the bathroom, turning on the cold sink tap and putting his lips to the water pouring out, slurping it up.

Medi just waited patiently in his bedroom, putting the cup back after Chad had tossed it on the floor.

He had never felt so thirsty before in his life, he was sweating all over.

He had to force himself to come up for air before his body commanded him to drink more. He struggled to control himself for a good five minutes, before finally turning the tap off, panting and sliding to the floor, his hands holding onto the side of the sink. "What, what in the fuck…"

Medi had now walked in and bent down to him, showing worry in her eyes. "Chad, when was the last time you had eaten and drank properly?"

"Before, all that shit went down, with Richard. Why?" He was trying to not be sick at the moment. He had consumed a rather large amount of fluids and his stomach felt it right now.

"Your body hasn't had this level of energy for such a long time…It was more or less an overload to you. I had to nullify some of the injection I gave previously to snap you out of it and go get a drink to try and hydrate yourself." She started to remove his dressing gown.

"Medi what, what are you…"

"You're sweating and it's soaking wet. You need to get out of it and let yourself cool off."

Chad couldn't resist. He just wanted the sick feeling, dizziness and sweating to end.

Soon he was back on his bed. Naked bar a towel over his hip. Medi was sitting besides him using a flannel on his head now and then to keep him cool. Outside his window the sun was slowly going down over the horizon. Around him was hair that Medi had cut off whilst asking him to keep the flannel on his head for a few minutes, having finished off his hair cut to make his hair back to the shape it was before Unicron came to town.

He was now a little skinnier compared to how he was when he appeared at the Zebes base…the lack of food for these past months had taken its toll.

She was now shaving him, having a small bowl of warm water nearby and using a razor. Being as delicate as she could after applying the shaving foam.

"So…Why did you do that? Why are you helping me like this?" Chad asked her as she was dealing with one side of his face.

She gave a small sigh as she continued to focus on her duty. "The doctors. They want you back on your feet by this evening. They were concerned when they saw you in the main room."

"I guess me not getting dressed during the day was the last straw huh?"

"No Chad." She cleaned off the razor of hair and foam before continuing. "They've wanted you back to normal for the past month. They gave you the space they felt you needed with…um…" Medi glanced away for a moment, not sure how to proceed with the name.

"Please just say Roll. I know her name is Ruth now but that was Roll then." Chad pointed out when he noticed she wasn't sure.

"With Roll. But last month someone appeared in the hospital. An old man with cards. I tried to talk with him but after glancing over at me he vanished. When I told the doctors, Dr Wily and Dr Light quickly started to say how it was time you 'got your priorities straight' and 'return to being an active member of the base'."

"Zuo Ci? They know of him?" Chad was a little surprised.

"I guess that's his name. I don't know." Medi once again cleaned the razor. "But it was him that got them to focus on you. That motivated them to focus on resetting Roll as they saw it as she was holding you dow—" Medi stopped for a moment, deciding that maybe the way the docs put it wasn't a sensitive way of doing it. "…Well, taking too much of your focus."

"Focus for what? I lost Anna and Unicron is gone. I did my part."

"Well they fear that isn't the case. You had to go and deal with Sephiroth at Unicrons head so, there's something else going on right?" She stood up with the bowl of water and went over to the other side of Chad before sitting down and beginning to shave the other side of his face.

"…Sephiroth…" Chad looked at her, making her stop the shaving. "Medi what happened to him? Where's his body? I recall he was in the main room last night."

"His body was, given to the old man for a 'burial of his kind'. We only had a small window of time to take a good look at what happened to him. Dark energy, like that of dark souls, was found in the wounds. His sword had his own blood on it and as you no doubt gathered, his blood had reached all the way to your room. The best guess of the doctors is that someone ambushed him as he entered your room."

"No camera footage to show what exactly happened? What about Richard? Did he escape at any time?"

Medi urged him to focus ahead, which he did so reluctantly as she started to shave him again. "Richard had not escaped at any time. Dr Wily had checked through the recordings and there's no sign of movement whatsoever. The corridors don't have any cameras installed so…no recordings there. I'm sure after this they'll look into that."

Chad waited for Medi to stop for a moment before speaking again. "So Richard might've been telling the truth…an echo of himself…"

Medi soon finished shaving him, smiling a little as she now used the flannel to clean off the last loose hairs and foam. "There we go. More like you from three months ago. If you want to go and have a look in the bathroom, I'll hand you a set of clothing and get this room tidied up whilst you get dressed." Chad nodded and got up, heading to the bathroom. "Nice ass by the way."

Chad soon closed the bathroom door and looked at himself in the mirror above the sink, tossing the towel aside for now.

He did look like those three months of hell had never happened. He rubbed his face a little with his hand. It felt slightly tender, sore.

He mumbled to himself. "Natural hair growth like an organic being, yet I'm a Navi. No more black eyes, no skin discolouration. If that injection went into anyone else that wasn't one, it might've killed them outright…still can't accept the fact of what I am, yet, here I am. Still, what was Sephiroth doing as Chaos? Why was he here?"

He heard Medi speak to him through the door. "Also, there was battlechip found on your desk during the clean-up of the blood…It had an icon that was shaped like Unicrons head."

Chad paused. The icon and the fact it was a battlechip made him recall the moment Richard held one like it before it was destroyed by Zuo Ci at Unicron's head.

"The docs have put it securely away for now. Diamas and Darkmega suggested Sephiroth might've brought it along before things went down as no one recalls you ever saying about that chip before. Diamas even recalled it being destroyed before."

Chad was a little relieved. "Yeah it was. Maybe Sephiroth had a backup and wanted me to use it but he got killed before that plan went into action. At least it would explain why he was at Unicrons head prior to his death."

Medi opened the door. Chad had briefly covered himself with his hands but after all this so far, knew she had seen it all at this point as she handed him his clothes, smiling. "Here. I'm almost finished. Just going to change the bedsheets." With that she closed the door again leaving him to it.

Chad meanwhile got his clothes on. "So why exactly are the docs wanting me ready by this evening? Is it just for the Zuo Ci reason or something else?"

"Something else." Medi replied. "Once you're done here, you're to go to the labs for a meeting. I'm certain after that you can go and grab something to eat with your friend."

"Friend?"

* * *

"…OKAY. Once more from the top. Why in the hell, do you think, I am suitable to watch over anyone, when I am being watched by Zuo Ci and the deities? And why her?"

An annoyed Chad was standing at one end of the lab. Dr Wily was sitting near the computers with Dr Light and Light Rich besides him, Maylu and Lan standing near Light Rich, and Dr Richard was standing opposite to Chad, looking agitated.

"I agree. Why should he be made her guardian when I am in a better position due to our previous history?" Dr Richard added to what Chad had just said.

Dr Light decided to go through it on more time with them. "Albert and I have spoken about this to eachother through the day. Due to our, impulsive agreement to reset her without your consent at the time, it is only fair that you watch over her during this stage of getting introduced around here. You never wanted to leave her side, so now you can still accomplish that."

"Alright. But since when did this 'guardian' business start? I don't recall it when me and Anna came to the base." Chad now asked.

"It's not spoken about. It's a job that is done to help people get acquainted with the location and what's on offer, as well as have someone become their friend. Do you recall when you came here, the next day Roll was showing you around whilst Samus was showing around Anna and Hub with Quickman, and all three kept checking in on you all during your first two weeks?"

Chad recalled it now. "…They were doing it as a job?"

Dr Wily nodded. "Roll was your guardian, Samus was Anna's and Hub was Quickman's. It's normally a week period but Roll needed an extra week thanks to your impulsiveness in getting yourself into trouble."

Chad then clicked on something. "Wait, was that what I was doing with Darkmega?"

Dr Wily once gave confirmed it with a nod. "Yes and we paid you for the two days you had done. 5000 gil."

"I didn't get any money!"

Dr Wily looked baffled, then looked at Dr Light who gave it a little thought. "It, could be that we forgot to tell him he has a bank account with us as part of what comes with being here?"

"What!?" Chad stared at them both. "I had money!?"

Dr Wily turned towards the computer and typed on it. Soon Chad's account came up on it, showing he currently had 67,000 gil in it. "You had 0 in it when you first arrived. We put in 10,000 as a thank you for joining us, an extra 50,000 for defeating Unicron as a thank you, Darkmega got that too, 5,000 from your Darkmega watching and finally 2,000 was a little gift from Anna, with the message 'Hey Chad, cheer up about Darkmega. Here, my treat for you to get yourself a few drinks of Dr Pepper, lots of love.'. Your account information would've come with the small welcome package we left in your room at the time."

…the one Chad never bothered to look at and shrugged off. His reaction made Dr Wily roll his eyes and type something in the computer, before a small metal card came out with Chad's name one and a black bar code line. He passed it to the mobian lad. "So you can access it. I'm assuming the last one probably got destroyed at some point. We place those welcome packs for a reason, Chad."

Chad cursed himself a little, before focusing back on the larger questions here after putting away the card. "Well at least I know of it now. So what do I exactly have to do?"

Dr Light talked to him. "Just be there. That's all. Try to help her make some friends."

"Can't Maylu do it? Or Dr Richard?" Chad motioned at them both.

Maylu looked away, whilst Dr Richard agreed with the idea. "Of course it should be me. I know her and she's important to me."

Dr Wily turned himself to face his grandson. "You're too close to her and would most likely cause a recall. Myself and Dr Light fully agree that is a terrible idea."

"Yet you trust her to him over there?" Dr Richard pointed at Chad for a moment, which caught Chad a little by surprise with how he was saying it, like Chad was an issue. "Him, who jumps at any sign that my dark self could be doing anything and clearly only looks fine now thanks to Medi. He's a cannon waiting to go off, someone that we shouldn't trust at this time until we know he can be calm and rational. What if he drags Ruth off to a dangerous location without thought and reason and she dies?"

"I have full confidence in Chad." Dr Wily looked over to the mobian. "I feel he will do what is right at the point of time it is needed. Granted he can be reckless, but it can turn out alright in the end."

"It didn't help Ruth at Unicron's head gramps, when my dark self managed to hurt her."

There was silence after that. Chad was glaring over at Dr Richard, clearly angry at what he just said.

Maylu spoke now, not looking at anyone. "He couldn't have done anything more for her Richard."

Dr Richard focused on her, while she was looking at him now, pissed off. "Roll was his friend. Richard, your dark self, was his friend. Roll was your dark self's friend too. Chad did all that he could for her and didn't know it would end like this. He trusted your dark self. Roll used to trust him and would've done so again over time. That trust was broken the moment he attacked her. Every time I look at your face, I'm wondering if you're going to be any better than him."

The grandson of Wily couldn't think of any answer. He just remained quiet as Maylu walked out of the labs, clearly looking like she wanting to cry despite trying to still seem just angry.

"Maylu! Maylu wait up!" Lan chased after her.

The lab door closed behind him.

Light Rich decided to speak up to break the quiet that followed. "Chad can be very protective of those around him. Anna is a good example, so is Darkmega. He is acceptable as a guardian to Ruth, while you will be an acceptable guardian to that new girl, Richard."

"Ah, right. The new girl. Pink haired thing." Dr Richard focused on that matter now, avoiding looking at Chad. "Do we have a name for her?"

Dr Wily shook his head. "At the moment no. So for now we've registered her and will call her by what she keeps repeating. Nyu."

Chad sighed a little. "Wow, bet that took some time huh?"

"It's the best with have with what we've figured out from her so far. Still have no idea where she came from exactly but we're hoping our, mutual friend, can shed from light on it soon." Dr Light explained to him.

"Mutual friend…Zuo Ci." Chad looked to the two old men. "I know your friends with him. He collected Sephiroth's body for a burial. Did he bring her here?"

"Yes. But he didn't explain what exactly happened to her."

"Hmm. That reminds me, you guys collected a battlechip from my bedroom after last night."

Dr Wily turned towards the computer, and soon the chip was on screen. "Yes, we're assuming it's based on Unicron thanks to Diamas. The system within it seems to be based on the Soul Unison programming, very loosely mind you. There's no way to telling what this will do to whoever uses it. So for now we've uploaded it into the net and locked it behind enough firewalls that it would take hours to crack and get in to."

Chad then decided to wrap this up. "Well at least it's out of my hair. So, where's Ruth so I can get her comfortable around here and tell her everything she used to know about this place?"

"Just remember she isn't allowed access to the network until we tell you Chad." Dr Wily got out of his chair and walked over to him. "She should be in the hospital. Keira was wrapping up the last of the modifications that Ruth wanted. Nyu is there too. She was being helped with picking out some clothes to wear around here rather then that rag she was in when she first got here."

Chad understood and walked out of the labs. Dr Richard was about to follow him but Dr Wily moved his cane to block his path. "No. We need to have a very serious talk first."

In the main room as Chad walked through it, Laserman was sitting at one of the chairs, his head focused on the boy as he walked past and went into the hospital.

Inside there was Keira holding a blue t-shirt and a pink long sleeve shirt, whilst the girl named Nyu was now wearing a pair of blue jeans, white socks, pink trainers and a cotton white bra as she was currently thinking between the two objects Keira held. "Look Nyu, we're down to these. It's either one or the other. Please don't make us get the whole lot out again…"

"Nyu…" Nyu placed her hand on her chin, looking over to one shirt, then the other. "Nyu…"

She then spotted Chad and stopped, looking at him with clear caution in her eyes.

"Oh, hi." Chad slowly walked over. "I'm sorry about before. Knocking you over and all that. The name's Chad Oswald."

"Nyu!" She covered her bosom up with her arms, going a little red. "Nyu Nyu!"

Keira frowned at Chad a little. "Don't you have any respect for privacy? Go and talk to Ruth! Now!" Keira motioned at the side door of the hospital. The one that held the cryo pods.

Chad made his way over, opening the door and heading in.

The icy cold appearance of the room was the same as always, dim, a blue hue around the place. There was dozens of clothing items neatly folded on the table where Roll once was, whilst a certain Navi was just folding a pair of trousers up next to them…but there was a noticeable difference with her. Her hair was no longer metallic, it was real. Still with the green bow at the bottom and all. She also lacked her helmet, yet the two antennas were clearly coming out of her hair somewhere, curving around like they used to. "Hey Keira. Let me guess she wants to try another set now? I don't know if the doctors have anything else in stock."

"…Ruth?"

She turned around to face, looking a little surprised.

He then straight away noticed several things: Her eyes had lost their green colour and were now far more teal, her fringe was parted to the sides and combed back, her stomach was slimmer, she seemed overall a little more slender, but kept her curves in the right area as he noticed when he came in. She also had small lumps sticking out of the chest area of her body…she had breasts now, small but noticeably present compared to her previous body status, and he had picked up whilst she turned around that the black panel she had on her back was now gone, yet the golden plug she had just above her butt remained. He also noticed the lack of a crest.

"Oh! Chad Oswald! I'm so glad we can finally talk again! You look so much better!"

"What the hell happened to you?" Chad quickly asked without thinking.

"H-huh?" It wasn't the question she expected. "What happened to me? Why? Am I ill?"

"No no! You're not it's just…" Chad walked over to her and started to make his way around her, looking at her up and down whilst she stood there noticing him making his way around. "What happened to your body? Your helmet? What's with the antennas?"

"Oh." Chad soon stopped in front of her, still looking surprised. "Well since I have no operator, the doctors allowed me a chance to modify my appearance. So I did. I had the antennas installed more directly into me—" She moved some of her hair aside and showed the energy wave was directly going into her head. "—and I can turn them on and off at will with that. I did some adjustments after I asked Dr Wily at what age I should be for my appearance, and just added a few tweaks myself. I wasn't allowed to remove the plug though, but I got rid of the crest. Didn't suit me. I kept the suit as I think it looks quite good on me, and I like the colours."

Chad rubbed the back of his head, smiling a little. "Yeah I mean it does and all, but, I…" He sighed and looked away to the side, trying to avoid eye contact. "It's not what I expected when I came to see you again."

He didn't expect Ruth to giggle at that. "You've only seen me once though silly. I admit it's very impressive you've caught onto the changes so quickly. I wouldn't expect someone to notice and react like this without having a look at me proper before. You really must be a Navi to be that sharp on your recall."

"Yeah…only once." Chad walked over to the side of her, standing next to the table before turning himself around and leaning on it a little. "So, been helping Keira?"

"As much as I can. Nyu is a difficult one to figure out." Ruth looked at the clothing. "I was told to wait around the Hospital and help until someone comes and shows me to my room, the locations of interest in this place and—"

"That's me."

Ruth seemed really happy with that. "That's great news! I wanted to spend a little time with you so I could apologise for my intrusion!"

"Intrusion?" Chad gave her a quizzical look.

The antennas lowered a little. "These remember? I intruded on your body to try and get information, mistaking your gesture as a sign of where I could get information."

"Oh THAT." Chad handwaved it, pretending the shitstorm that happened after never occurred for him. "Relax Ruth. I'm cool with it. Just, freaked me out a little at the time. We're good now."

She seemed relieved at that. "That's good…so, besides my changes in looks, your looks."

"Huh?"

"Is this your standard look?"

Chad rubbed his face a little, recalling the beard and then his hair. "Well yeah, more or less. You saw me at a bad time Ruth. This is more, me."

"I hope you keep this way. You look good."

Chad smiled a little, before moving away from the table. "Well why don't we start the tour? I can at least show you around the place proper before we head in for the night."

Ruth was quickly beside him, positively beaming whilst grabbing his hand. "Of course! Let's go!"

Chad didn't expect her to hold his hand, but he tolerated it as they walked out of the hospital room.

* * *

In the realm of the deities, the stars flooded the sky above, no cloud stopped their beautiful light as it glitters down onto the golden pillars and hallways crafted by those who lived in this place.

Lu Bu was strolling down the hallways, hearing the streams of water around the place and in the middle of the path trickle on. He was in his own thoughts, about Primus, about Chad, about the destiny that the game was being based on.

He had noticed Kefka walking the other way, going past him after Kefka waved, but chose to ignore him. He heard Kefka retort with "Well! Just goes to show how rude your co-workers can be when you gotta work with them again on the game!"

Lu Bu came to a stop and glanced behind him. "You clown? Work with us?"

Kefka bounced back and was now in front of Lu Bu. "Why yes, I've been employed to join this game after the last one three million years ago! Oh, don't tell me you didn't you hear about Sephy?"

"…I heard he was killed. Should be revived soon enough. He is one that is favoured by Blind Io."

"Not this time bucko! His perma-dead! Blind man can't fix it like they couldn't with Phantom!" Kefka proudly announced.

Lu Bu on hearing that was now fully interested. "Dead? Permanently? But we carry the souls of Leviathans."

"But he can't!" Kefka laughed a little "Boy if only Sephy saw it coming, he never would've taken up the stinking job. Still, more for me eh? I gotta go and get things set up for the mark of skath. Blind Io wants one of the big guns from all the way back when to play with Chad Oswald!"

"Mark of…ah." Lu Bu remembered. "I see. But that was last used on a bloodline of Anna. Anna Hael is dead."

"Heh yeah. But there's another out there brutus. I'm gonna go pay her a visit and set the mark, get the ball rolling you know." He started skipping away, before stopping in mid-air and turning back to look at Lu Bu, who was watching him. "Oh I did ask Blind man if I could bring back my old pal Aku as well but he's thinking about it. You remember him right?"

"Hmph. I'll be watching you from the base." Lu Bu continued on his way.

"Jeez…and I thought Zuo Ci was the sour puss on the opposing team. Oh well." Kefka went on his way after, jumping back and forth over the little stream of water. "Oh it's good to be back in the main games after so long…"

Lu Bu had ventured on, heading towards the way out of this realm, a massive swirling golden vortex at the end of what they made into an entrance hall, grand golden gates that opened on arrivals and departures, tables of stone laid out with food and drinks gathered across the universe, a small fog like effect on the floor to give it that heavenly appearance for when any mortal comes to visit.

Right now Slur was standing at one of the tables, noticing Lu Bu. "I take it your heading out?"

"Back to the Hero Base. I need to report in. Been away for too long." He walked past her and waited as the gates started to open up to allow him access to the vortex.

"You they're aware of what you are right? You don't need to be there."

"Primus's bloodline is there. I intend to watch and wait."

"For what reason? You said it yourself that he'll never be like Primus."

"I wait for the day Primus himself is given another chance."

* * *

"Wow…So this is what people call the local watering hole?"

"Yeah, it's run by a dragon. Don't mind him his cool."

Chad had shown Ruth to the Food hall where they had a meal together alone, due to everyone else had eaten earlier in the day, showed her around the training and hologram rooms, where he lives should she need him at any time, what's due to come for the base that he knows about such as the swimming pool.

Now they entered Ridley's bar for the night life.

Which consisted of Ryu, Ma Chao, Ken and Pang Tong on one table, Zhang He, Charlie and Quickman on another whilst Zhang Liao, Samus, Shadow, Dr Light, Yan Liang and Wen Chou were all sitting at the bar. The dance floor had been turned off for now, and there was a large TV hanging above the bar which had the local planet news on.

Chad led Ruth to an empty table. Her appearance made most people look in curiosity. It was clear though a message had already been sent out to them about her as none asked if she was Roll. They greeted her as she passed by each person by the name Ruth, with Ridley giving a friendly wave to them both and coming over once Chad moved the chair for Ruth to sit down, then joined opposite of her.

"Well now Chad. It's good to see you after so long man! What can I get you and the lovely lady?"

Ruth looked at Ridley. "Um, do you have a menu?"

"A menu? Well I-…huh…" Ridley looked away from them for a moment, rubbing his jaw. "Why haven't I thought of that before? ...Don't menu's normally have food on them too?"

"Well they don't have to but—" Chad started with.

"—Yeah. Exotic food…Hey, I think I know what else I want to petition to the docs now. Surely people here get bored of the same set menus in that damned food hall. Maybe I could to something to get more people in." Ridley was clearly having a brainstorm.

Until Ruth spoke up again. "Um, Ridley? A drink?"

"OH! Right sorry!" Ridley focused back on them. "Well I can tell you of all the cocktails I currently can make, the alcohol range I have and the soft drink choices."

"Alright then."

Chad was impressed. Ridley listed down at least one hundred items, including what each one contained…and boy did each cocktail turn his stomach on hearing the details for them and how he gets their consistency. He did say about there being a choice for normal cocktails i.e those known the Shinra Federation, but he'll get them imprinted on his soon-to-be-designed menu.

Ruth eventually settled on a small glass of rose wine, interested solely on the name of it. Chad went for his normal, a pint of Dr Pepper, giving Ridley his card and saying he'll pay for the drinks, now finally having his own money to use.

Ridley gave him a little sly smile. "Of course the gentlemen should. It's always the same for most species for the male to treat the female afterall." He walked off back to the bar.

Ruth looked at Chad with her eyebrow raised slightly. Chad just handwaved it. "Ah ignore the dragon. He's just assuming things." Chad leaned back in his chair, trying to get relaxed. "So, what do you think of this place now?"

"It seems to be expanding with new ideas…but the décor could do with some improvements, don't you think?"

Chad shrugged. "Eh, dull grey is the new black for the docs."

"Speaking of them…Dr Light appears to be…tipsy." Ruth glanced over to Thomas, who was taking down a pint of beer which, after he emptied the glass, he was swaying a little.

Chad looked over for a moment, before back at Ruth. "Once a week he comes to do this. It helps him relax after so many long hours in the lab. Dr Wily probably does the same, just a bit more 'refined' in taste."

"Refined?"

"Most likely has a few bottles of whisky in his room. Keira once complained about him smelling of it."

"…I wonder why they need to drink? They have such brilliant minds." Ruth looked a little disappointed thinking about them.

Chad looked over to Dr Light again. "Most likely because they've done all kinds of shady stuff related to their brilliant minds. Heck Dr Wily caused a string of robot rebellions as well as attempts to take over the network on this planet. He's a criminal mastermind turned owner of this place."

"And people trust him?" Ruth was surprised.

"Well yeah. Heck they trust an ex-space pirate like Ridley, so why not?"

Speaking of that ex-pirate, he returned with their drinks, gave back Chad's card…and placed a small battery running spherical shaped white lamp on the middle of their table. Chad just stared at it before looking at the other tables, noticing a lack of said lamps on them, then looked at Ridley. "What is this?"

"Oh, Samus suggested it. She knew I had a collection of these I planned to set up eventually for dance nights. She said they help 'relax the mood between two people'."

Chad quickly looked over to the bounty hunter, who was seen clearly snickering at Zhang Liao, motioning over to Chad's table. Whilst without Chad seeing, Quickman had looked over to the table and his face paled at what Samus had done. He quickly started to pray that Chad wouldn't snap at what Samus was playing on him.

But Chad was in a decent mood. He looked back to Ridley. "Fine, whatever. It looks alright. Ruth?"

Ruth was busy sniffing her wine. "So, what type is this of the rose collection?"

"Sharp Lounge. I decided it was best to be gentle with your first taste of it. Comes from the Everstar system, name comes from the plant they use." Ridley explained.

Chad seemed glad she didn't care for the light, whilst Quickman was clearly relieved himself.

Soon they were both enjoying their drinks, with Chad mostly talking about his life on Mobius, his adventures across that world and of course, it eventually reached the topic of Anna.

Boy did he slow down on that coming up. He knew it might help him to talk about her, and Ruth was genuinely interested, showing she was by leaning in a little and keeping eye contact.

He spoke about how he and her bumped into eachother, how he saved her a few times from Chaos and Robotnik when he got her into the mess in the first place, and how she introduced him to this place.

He was on his second pint of Dr Pepper now, whilst Ruth had finished her glass of rose and now had a small glass of lemonade.

"—And the first thing that happened was that I rammed into Yuan Shao. Boy that didn't get me into his good books at first."

Ruth chuckled. "I bet. So about Anna, what happened to her? I haven't seen her around. Are you together?"

Chad gave a deep sigh. He knew this would come up. "She's, well, in a better place. I lost her some time back."

"Oh…I'm so sorry Chad." Ruth slowly reached over and placed her hand over his. "I didn't mean to bring up painful memories."

"It's…I don't mind. I guess I needed to talk to someone, and you're a good listener."

Ruth gave a little shift of her shoulders. "Well, you brought me here and brought me a drink, what else was a lady supposed to do?"

Chad chuckled for a moment, looking down at her hand on his on the table, in the light…

Richard's words came back to him whilst they were in Unicron.

 _"She loves you Chad. She wanted to be with you but stood aside for your dead girlfriend."_

Chad moved his hand away from Ruth's. "I should show you to your room." He got up from the table, with her following suit albeit a little confused and concerned.

"Have I done something?" Ruth asked him.

"No I…I'm due to meet someone else. Just remembered. Come on." He walked out of the bar and she followed suit.

After going through a couple of corridors, they arrived outside Roll's room. He opened the door for her. "Your key card for the room is on the table next to your bed. Get plenty of rest, okay?"

"Chad. Did I offend you?" Ruth placed her hand on his shoulder. "If I did I want to know. You looked at me touching you and—"

"Ruth. I, I just…" He looked at her, clearly looking a little down. "I just need to sort something else okay?" He gave her a weak smile. "I enjoyed this evening. We'll do it again sometime, okay?"

Ruth let go of his shoulder nodding. "I'd love to. Well, take care Chad. Good luck with, whatever you need to do." She slowly went inside and closed the door.

Chad quickly walked away, cursing and mumbling to himself. "Of course HE would spoil the mood for me. That bastard is locked away yet still the moment I think of him everything goes to shit…"

He reached his room, used the key card and opened his door.

To the sight of Zuo Ci standing there inside, waiting for him. "Gah! The fuck old man!"

The deity bowed a little. "Ah, Chad. It is good to see you. I have come to warn you of a new problem."

Chad walked into his room, closing the door before heading over to his bed and sitting down. "If it's something to do with Sephiroth and how he died I know full well who did it."

"No, is it not that. Though Sephiroth's death was rather a shock, I have come to warn you of the danger that is looming over someone you know of."

"Can't you tell me in the morning? I'm tired." Chad laid on his bed, not bothering to get out of his clothes with the deity around.

"It's about Anna's sister."

Chad stopped breathing for a second before quickly sitting up and looking at the deity. "Excuse me?"

"She's in danger thanks to a prophecy that affects her bloodline. You must ensure her safety and avoid the awakening of a great evil."

"Zuo Ci you don't know her. She wouldn't even let me go near her after all this time."

"You must try Chad. Sleep now. By morning head to Mobius and convince her to come here for her protection. Her life as well as millions of others are at stake."

Chad was irritated. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Deadly so."

"Goddamnit. Fine old man. I'll do it."

Zuo Ci gave one more bow and in a small flash of white light, he was gone.

Chad laid back down. "Of all people, why must it be Elie?"


	4. Mobius: Encounters

Station Square. The once primary human colony on the planet Mobius.

Its population was ever changing, groups of humans and mobians leave the world, other humans or species replace them. It was a tourist area and one of the first things people see when they first come to Mobius, mostly because they come to Mobius for none other than Twinkle Park.

The colony was created well over two hundred years ago by a woman named Elizabeth Gel who managed to befriend the local population of mobians.

Thanks to the location's importance to the world, her descendent was now made ambassador to Human-Mobian relations on the planet, telling visitors the rules, what to say and not to say and handle any dispute that might arise between the species to avoid the conflict escalating out of control.

That person was right now on one of her few days off, heading to the outskirts of Station Square into it's suburbs after getting her groceries and having just got off the train, walking her way home.

She had been made full time ambassador about eight months ago when she turned 18. Her father was in charge before her and had wanted to retire from the position. Sadly a couple of months after she got into the job as part time two years ago, he passed on. She was able to look after herself though and kept the job going, taking what training she needed and allowed her dad's close friends to help her out at times, until she turned 18 and had proved she can handle the matters that come and go.

The only thing she's known for is her slight leaning towards humans over the mobians when it comes to debates. This was due to her past relations with mobians, especially when one became close friends with her only sister and led to her leaving the planet dragging him along. She refused to go near Mobotropolis unless she absolutely must, the current confirmed capital of Mobius.

She was relieved when she saw her home in the distance, the only white painted house in the midst of the multi coloured ones in her street 'New Haven'. It's never changed over the years she's grown up in it. At the end of the road was the beautiful green hills and forests where her and her sister used to go and play, their blue picket fence to their decent sized front garden, the brown wooden door…it made her feel calm just by look alone.

She placed the brown bags down with various meats and vegetables in and unlocked the door with her keys.

Her place was like all the others on this road. Two floors, a garage attached on the side that held her dad's old car, a living room, dining room, toilets up and down, three bedrooms and a kitchen. Out the back was another garden, small brown shed her dad used to use, and a washing line that had her clothing hanging up, gently flowing with the breeze that had come on this clear warm day.

Her kitchen was metallic looking with a dark grey finish, the floor a marble black. Her living room had a red carpet, brown furniture and pictures of her and her family…one picture stood out that was on top of their fake electric fireplace their dad had installed a few years ago, which showed an image of a fire and made the same warmth, but with no smoke and a click of a switch, turned off.

In that one picture was her, a girl with brown hair, blue shirt and grey trousers, and the ripped off remains revealed a little corner of a red mobian.

She placed her groceries in her dining room, which had a large light brown round dining table. Nearby it was a cabinet that had a tea set, small plates and fancy glasses her father collected over time.

The girl had brown hair in a short hairstyle with dark brown eyes, fair skin, a curvaceous body with a rather decent sized bosom. She's wears a white tank top with red singlets with a cross mark design at the center of her tank top, a blue denim skirt with three buttons at the center and a pair of dark brown boots.

She sat down near the bags, looking a little tired. "Geez, I swear with that Rufus jerk in charge everyone is acting more miserable. I've never had so many people just ignore or grunt when I say hello to them…Maybe I should check the news later. See if anything's happened recently."

She got herself up and walked into the living room, noticing on her dull red phone there was a few audio messages, as the small screen attached to it was flashing a '3' to remind her. She decided to press play on it whilst heading back for her groceries and taking them to the kitchen to start unpacking.

The phone's machine female voice started. "Three new messages. Message one:"

A female, happy go lucky sounding voice was heard. "Hey, it's Maria from the office! Got some great news for you! The problem we had with the printer got fixed up! Problem now is…it's gonna cost a bomb. I'll send the bill to the council as always, but they might expect us to pay a share of it since, ya know, WE overloaded the machine. See ya!"

"Message two:"

It was a young male now. "Hey it's Leon Zon. Still having problems with my visa to get back into the F-Zero course for Green Planet. I have no idea why it isn't working. They said I needed to contact you again due to technical difficulties. Sorry about this. Bye for now."

The girl sighed as she was packing away the meat she had bought to place it in the freezer. That poor guy always had trouble with this.

"Message Three:"

A more serious sounding male now spoke. "It's Blue."

Elie stopped what she was doing and walked over to the doorway between her living room and kitchen, looking at the phone as the message continued.

"I dealt with those punks who tried to raid your office a few weeks back. One dead, the rest locked up. I had to shoot one as he attempted to resist. It made the rest fall in line. The cops are busy dealing with that right now. I'm heading back to my apartment in Station Square. If you want to grab a drink with me again sometime I'd love to. It was fun. Hit me up soon."

She sighed. He was her on-and-off boyfriend of sorts. They've known eachother for about a year and a half now since he came to Mobius to find work as a mercenary. She fancied him, he just taken down a group of bandits who tried to hide out in Station Square and from there she allowed him to take up residence for a small fee each month.

They entered a relationship for a few weeks, it fell apart with his lack of attendance to their dates. Then they went into one again, then he just stops going out, and it keeps repeating. Currently they weren't a couple again, but she knew the moment they go for a drink she'll wind up either bringing him home or her heading to his place for a night of fun, and by morning she'll call him boyfriend and him calling her girlfriend, a few days pass, and it'll be back to square one.

She smiled. She had to admit, those night outs are really fun though. Maybe she should call him tonight. No work tomorrow so who cares what happens? She walked back into the kitchen and continued unpacking when she heard the doorbell go off.

Looking annoyed she made her way over. "I swear if it's a tradesman I'm gonna slam it right on his face…"

She opened the door. "Listen whatever your selling I'm not—"

She stopped.

Standing there was Chad Oswald, to his left Samus Aran with her helmet off and to his right Jak with his friend Daxter on his shoulder.

Her face turned dark. "You."

"Heyyyy Elie? So…long time no see huh?"

* * *

" _Anna has a sister and neither you or her felt it was necessary to INFORM us?"_

" _I thought you guys would try her dad's house number!"_

" _Her dad died two years ago! Didn't she tell you!?"_

" _She said about visiting her family next year once things settled back down due to long it's been! I thought you guys would at least try the phone to contact someone should there be any relatives left!"_

" _No!"_

 _Chad was standing in the labs, with Dr Wily sitting down, Dr Light facepalming at this news, Dr Hikari looking stunned and Keira frowning at Chad._

 _She spoke next. "Chad they ask for all of your family details, my DAD who lives here had to tell them about his sage status and all the other sages that lived on our world! What part of that did you or Anna not understand?"_

" _Look things got tense between us and Elie okay? Anna's dad didn't mind us but Elie wasn't so approving of how Anna was and blamed me for it."_

" _And now we need to send you to Mobius to contact her, and convince her to come and join us?" Dr Light still hadn't moved._

" _Pretty much what Zuo Ci wants yes. It'll be like trying to get blood from a stone mind you."_

" _Why's that?" Dr Wily asked him._

" _Anna had never bothered calling her family as soon as we left Mobius. Last I heard from her that was still the case before Earth V's little civil crisis."_

 _Dr Light finally look over at him. "You came and joined us over 4 years ago."_

" _Yyyyeeeaahhh."_

 _Dr Wily looked over to Hikari, then at Thomas. "Well. We might as well make the most of this venture. Chad I'm sending a group with you."_

" _Sending me with a team, why?"_

" _Well for starters you'll clearly struggle trying to bridge this communication gap with Elie, so a couple of others being around may help improve your relations. We also could do with getting some supplies from Mobius. The planet is known for its strong wood, refined stones and wool. We could use some for the base to advance our expansion. You see Dr Richard has a few new ideas beyond a swimming pool and we would like to get them implemented."_

 _Keira looked at Dr Wily. "We could use the resources to make this place a little more colourful too ya know."_

" _No need." Dr Light answered with._

" _I agree with Thomas." Wily also said. "And I think you should go Keira to make sure we get a good deal on the supplies, see what you get out of the warehouses of the traders. Let them know who we are and such."_

 _Keira sighed. "Fine, I'll go."_

 _Chad then asked "So who's gonna come with me? Ruth?"_

" _No no. She's still getting used to things. I'll call around and see who wants to go for a small trip to Mobius to either help Keira or you. Don't worry, I'll limit it to a small group."_

It was a small group thankfully. Keira had gone to the coastal supply houses of Station Square with Guan Yu, Terra and Charlie, whilst Jak, Sonic and Samus went with Chad.

Sonic quickly bailed as they got to the suburbs, his last words as he was ready to run at full speed were the fact green hill zone was calling to him, clearly knowing things with Elie would be difficult. Chad couldn't blame him.

Now Chad was sitting on one of the couches, with Samus and Jak besides him. A small table in front of them and the ticking of the hanging wooden clock on the wall next to the doorway leading out of the house.

Elie had let them in, begrudgingly. She told them to sit down and had gone to the kitchen to finish unpacking her food before putting the kettle on and brewing a pot of mobius green tea. She didn't care if any of them actually like it or not, and they didn't feel they were in a position to refuse the offer.

Jak had to ask Chad about it. "So what's, uh, this tea gonna be like?"

"If you like human green tea it should be fine. It's got a rosemary'ish taste to it. The leaves are loose in the drink so don't mind the floating specks you'll see."

Daxter wasn't so impressed with that as he started to wander around the living room. "Whatever happened to offering cold drinks? Why the heck does it have to be fricken' tea huh?"

Jak tried to relax a little. "So Chad, what's with this girl and you? She seems irritated."

Chad sighed, looking over at Jak, whilst Daxter was continuing his checking out of the living room. "Well I kinda inspired her sis to look to go off world. Elie wanted her to stay grounded and focus on the colony. Their family are one of the first to come to this world and have a position of being those who represent the human factor in mobian society…hence Elie here is now the ambassador for human mobian relations since her father passed away two years back."

"And Anna?"

"…Was meant to do it, mostly become Elie's deputy ambassador till she heard about Dr Light from me, the Hero base and things went from there."

Samus figured it out now. "Oh…does she know about—"

Chad quickly cut her off. "No. The docs didn't even know Anna had a sister. I did but, well. My priorities were a little off."

Soon the homeowner returned to the living room and brought in the tea set. Each person bar Daxter, who was busy climbing up on the fake fireplace, had a cup each, Jak and Samus thanking Elie whilst Chad just stared down at his drink whilst the other two took a sip of their drinks.

Daxter had gotten to the damaged photo. "Eesh, who didn't you like that you took them off the picture of you and Anna here?"

Elie stared at Chad.

Jak looked to his pal. "Get down here for the moment Daxter." He turned to Elie. "Sorry, he often snoops around when his not suppose to."

"Hm." Was all she answered with as Daxter jumped down and walked over to the tea set, noticing a plate of chocolate chip cookies at one end of the tray.

"Hel-lo sweet treats. Don't mind if I do." He grabbed one and started nibbling it as the silence soon crept back in.

Then, she spoke to Chad. "So…why now?"

Elie was staring Chad down whilst she held the cup of tea…there was a certain clinking sound in the room as Jak and Samus noticed that Chad's hand was shaking a little as he was trying to hold the cup and saucer. He really wasn't sure how to approach this.

"Well, Elie. I have some news for you and, I needed to come and check on you." Chad started to explain.

"Oh, check on me. I see. You've come to check on me, but my sis can't be bothered?" She was glaring a little now. "I never heard from her the moment she left here. I've tried calling her over the years but can she be bothered? No."

"Well, there's a reason for that."

"A reason for not bothering and sending her boyfriend, some bounty hunter, a rat—"

"HEY!" Daxter stopped nibbling on the cookie he had.

"—And a Dumauris who looks like he needs a shave and a hair cut!"

Dumauris was what Jaks species was called in the SF, meaning 'Long Ear', for obvious reasons. Jak felt a little attacked there. "Um…good tea by the way. Nice house." And lightly sipped on his drink.

Chad sighed and lowered his drink, placing it on the table. "Elie there is a very good reason. Please just listen to me okay?"

Elie clearly was still unhappy, but allowed him to speak.

"The fact is…Anna…Anna Hael is…" Chad knew the word he wanted to say, but it was hard. The concern of how Elie would react was quite evident in his mind.

"What? Pregnant? Married to you? Wounded?" Elie was ticking off what words it could be. "Lost? Kidnapped?"

"…Dead."

Elie dropped her cup, it's contents soaking into the carpet and making Daxter jump back a little in surprise as Elie was staring straight at Chad, dumbstruck. "D, dead? Anna is, dead?"

She got up off the chair that was opposite to where the others were sitting, and walked over to the fake fireplace, staring at the picture of her and Anna.

Samus got up now, taking a few steps towards her. "It's true Elie. Anna was taken from us…We're so sorry."

Jak then spoke to the girl. "Elie…If you want a moment, we'll wait outside or—"

"How." Elie didn't look at any of them, but her voice was cracking a little, showing she was hurting emotionally. "How did she die?"

Both Jak and Samus looked to Chad, whilst Daxter tried as quietly as possible to just eat his cookie, trying to avoid the awkward situation.

Chad slowly stood up, facing Elie. "She, she was killed. Murdered. By a villain, a monster that had planned for her to die. I was there."

"…And you didn't stop it Chad? You didn't stop them from killing Anna?"

Chad didn't want to think about it, yet there it was, replaying in his head, that moment he was with Anna in the base then a moment later, she was gone. "Richard did so before I could act. Richard killed her. I was unable to Elie. I, I wish I could've but…he got her."

"And where is the murderer now?"

"In our base. Locked away. We're trying to figure out a way to kill him proper."

Daxter stopped eating for a moment. "That bastard was our pal once, now look what he did."

Elie caught that, one of her hands clenched into a fist, shaking ever so slightly. "Your pal? He was a member of that damned hero base?"

Chad glared a little at Daxter, as did Jak whilst the Ottsel shrugged innocently with the biscuit in his mouth, before Chad focused back on Elie. "Yeah…He was."

"…So I was right. I warned her that place was dangerous. That something would go wrong." Elie gave a small, bitter laugh. "'Chad will keep me safe Elie, stop worrying about what could happen off this rock.' Yet now look at what's happened Anna…Look at what going there did to you…"

Chad didn't dare say anything now, he could tell this was becoming hopeless to convince her to come with them, especially when she said that.

They waited whilst Elie was heard sniffling, trying to not cry. "Did, did you at least try to stop him?"

"…I tried to avenge her Elie. He took her without warning and I tried my best with everything I had. But he's beyond my power. The doctors at the base, Dr Light and Dr Wily, are looking into ways to kill him…but it'll take time. We imprisoned him so it wouldn't happen to anyone else."

Elie gulped. "I, I need time alone. I'm going to go out, have a walk around. I'll be back soon…if there's anything else, we'll talk then." She turned and started to walk to the front door.

"Elie?" Chad called out to her.

"Don't. Chad. Just, leave me alone for now." She opened the door and slammed it behind her as she went.

Chad was about to follow after her but Samus grabbed his shoulder. "Give her time to grieve. We can ask her to join us when she gets back. If she didn't want to talk to us, she would've ordered us out of here."

"She might ask for a body." Jak wondered. "Or even how long it's been since she died."

Chad sighed. "We just gotta be ready for those questions."

* * *

On the coastal side of Station Square, it had dozens of warehouses past Twinkle Park, with stacks upon stacks of steel cargo containers, designed to be collected by both transport ships and water vessels alike.

Guan Yu was currently looking out at the sea at the edge of one of the landing pads for transport ships. Keira had taken Terra and Charlie with her to confirm what supplies they could get for the Hero Base.

The clear sky and the sun shining down made it quite pleasant for the tall warrior of Shu. He was gently stroking his long beard with one hand, thinking about home, whilst holding his crescent blade in the other, resting the blunt end of it on the ground.

He closed his eyes. He wondered how Liu Shan was faring now. His decision to turn his back on the Hero Base faction was a disappointing one, but he still worried for his oath brothers' child. A part of him regretted stepping down and allowing the boy to take over, but he feared if he refused to allow the boy control of the kingdom that rightfully belonged to him, it would dishonour him and his family forever.

He then started to wonder when he should pay his homeworld a visit, maybe buy some gifts from Mobius to take to Liu Shan…

"Hey! Hey tall guy!"

Guan Yu opened his eyes. That was directed at him and he could hear footsteps coming towards him. He slowly turned to where he heard the voice.

The person in the black long coat, with red spiky hair and sharp green eyes had reached Guan Yu panting a little and placing his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "Hey, there fella. Name's Axel how're ya doing?" the person named Axel gave him a little smile before focusing on getting his breathing back to normal.

"I am well thank you." Guan Yu was curious on this new person. "What is it you want?"

"You're the only fella out here right now. Phew, okay…" Axel stood up straight now, feeling himself calm down. "Just needed to ask a question."

"Ask away."

"You haven't seen anyone with medium brown hair? Deep blue eyes? Wears a coat like mine and may or may not be looking like his just constantly fazed out? Name's Daxch?"

Guan Yu shook his head. "I must apologize but I have not met anyone matching that description."

"Aw nuts." Axel rubbed the back of hair for a moment before placing his hands on his hips. "Shoot, where the hell could he have run off to? I hope he didn't get into Twinkle Park somehow. Might cause a hell of a scene if someone pushes him."

"Is he a danger to others?" Guan Yu asked.

"Well I'm supposed to be watching him but lately his been sneaking away from me. He a little nuts and carries a nasty weapon on him. I don't want him to make a scene like we're not supposed to…"

"Axel!" A young boy had called out to the redhead from behind him and Guan Yu.

Running up to them were two new people. A young girl with short black hair and blue eyes whilst the slightly older boy, late teens by the looks of it, had blonde hair and blue eyes. Both wore the same coat as Axel.

"Roxas. Xion. Any luck?"

The girl named Xion shook her head. "Nothing good. Roxas just spotted Daxch heading towards that dome building." She motioned over at Twinkle Park.

Axel frowned and rubbed his forehead for a moment. "Of course, why would he avoid the crowded places…"

Guan Yu then got their attention. "If this person is dangerous and you require assistance to find them, I am willing to help you."

Axel looked at him, then at his two companions, before clicking his fingers. "Hey. I got an idea!" He quickly looked back at Guan Yu. "You got any cash to get into Twinkle Park?"

"I have a large amount of funds."

"Great! Listen—" He turned back to Xion and Roxas. "-You two go with this guy and get inside Twinkle Park. Look around carefully, try to spot Daxch before he sees you. We don't need him summoning heartless and causing chaos. I'll keep an eye outside and make sure he isn't in Station Square somewhere."

Roxas quickly talked. "And if he is? You'll be on your own against him!"

"Relax Roxas. I can take him. If it gets hard I'll signal you with our com-links alright?" He smiled at the boy, before looking at Guan Yu again. "Thanks for this Guan Yu. I'll pay you back sometime!" With that, Axel ran off.

Guan Yu looked at the two people with him now. "We should hurry on if we intend to capture the one you wish to stop."

Roxas nodded, and led the way, with Xion and Guan Yu following after him.

Several minutes later, Keira, Terra and Charlie returned to the landing pad.

"…Huh. I thought he said he would be here. Did he head home without us?" Terra turned to Charlie and Keira, who looked a little annoyed.

"Typical. Can't wait for one bloody hour…" Keira started to complain to them as they stood there trying to figure out where their partner could've ran off to.

* * *

Chad had gone upstairs within Elie's home. Jak, Samus and Daxter remained in the living room, Daxter sleeping on one of the chairs whilst the other two were talking about how to approach Elie from here about coming to the base.

Chad moved past what was once Elie's room and stopped at the door leading to Anna's…his memory was blurry, but he recalled walking in here with Anna, with her telling him to keep quiet to avoid waking her sister and dad up.

He opened the blue wooden door…inside the room had been decorated from Anna's pink wallpaper and carpet, white linen on her bed and several toys on the shelves. That had been taken down…the bed was present but had a beige set of bedding on it, in place of the drawers and cupboard Anna had, there was now a computer desk complete with a black covered computer system and desk chair.

He could vaguely recall why she wanted him to come into her room. She wanted to show him pictures of other worlds…She kept saying how beautiful each one looked.

Chad slowly walked into the room.

He could just picture where he and her sat on the bed, youngsters who were looking at the pictures in the light of a torch she had taken from downstairs, too scared to put her lamp on or bedroom light as it might be noticed by her family.

She was concerned with having a boy in the house, especially a mobian who didn't fully understand humans, only having just recently learnt to transform into one.

…he looked at his hands as the images of the young him and Anna faded.

No.

He wasn't mobian. That wasn't true. Yet…he recalled being unable to transform at first, he had to learn like other mobians did. Yet, surely something should've given it away he wasn't that. That he was a Hu-Navi.

He tried to recall any incidents on this world that might've hinted to it, but his memories were blurry, flickering. They were hard to recall.

'Anna used to love living here, didn't she?' His conscience spoke to him.

"…Yeah. Loved it until I said about Dr Light." Chad sighed. "I'm wishing I never said anything."

'Don't. She wanted to leave and fly to the stars. She didn't want to end up like her sister, Amy or several others of yours and Sonics friends. She didn't want to be grounded at the time when the offer came up.'

Chad sat down on the bed. "She used to always say how large the universe was, how many galaxies and people there were out there. She said about having a calling to it all."

'That was a few weeks before we left to the Hero Base. We joked that it sounded a little concerning at the time.'

"…I remember the shouting and yelling between her and Elie. I was sitting right here at the time."

'Yup. Elie said about it being too dangerous, their father getting weaker and they needed to be here. It ended when her father said it was alright. Anna had to choose her path in life. Elie slammed her bedroom door about as loud as she did with that front door today.'

"We saw him a lot right? What was his name again?"

'…'

Chad couldn't think of it. Nor could he recall their mothers name…nor his own family now he thought about it.

He paused.

It was the first time he thought about his family since forever. Chaos saying he was his dad made him think briefly, but Roll took over that concern.

Now he was here, trying to think about it.

The only one he knew for certain was his cousin Dave Hayami. He never mentioned Chaos and often just came to check on Chad. There was no one beyond that. "…Holy crap I need to find my family tree and try to figure that out soon. At least if anything it might help denounce what Chaos said."

He heard the front door open. Elie was probably back now. Time to face the music that she'll just tell him where to stuff it the moment he mentions leaving.

He walked out of the room and headed downstairs, walking into the living room.

To indeed find Elie there, but also a face he hadn't seen for some time. A man in his 40's wearing rounded glasses, had short light brown hair, a brown jacket with a white fleece shirt, black jeans and brown leather shoes.

Chad had known this man for some time when he was on Mobius. After meeting Anna, there was Sabek, the man before him, who told him about the villains who lived on this world and often gave Chad advice as well as Sonic suggestions on how to tackle them. He was especially helpful when it came to dealing with Chaos.

"Ah, Chad." The man named Sabek walked over and shook his hand. "It's been a while hasn't it?"

Chad looked quite surprised. "It, it has been yeah. What are you doing here though? Why are you with Elie?"

"Yes well uh—" Sabek seemed to think for a moment. "There's been a major concern lately about you. Prophesised. You see I had expected you to come to our world a lot sooner but it seemed like the problem, the uh, date it was due in my dreams passed by. So I left it alone, thought nothing more of it, assumed all was well…except last night I saw the dream again. The end of it showed Elie's house so I made my way over by the train and bumped into this young crying girl here—" motioning at Elie "—Had a little talk and found out you were indeed at her house so…yeah."

"Wait wait wait. Prophesised? Is it about him being of Primus descent because that was already revealed." Samus walked over to Sabek.

"No. That, was already shown to me and I was aware of it but that was part of the previous dreams. This one was more about something I've known about for a long time. Something more worrying." Sabek focused on Chad. "…Something very evil, is lurking inside you."

Chad stared at Sabek for a moment, before shaking his head, taking the information in. "Hold it, another evil thing? Sabek I just removed a dark soul out of me." Sabek raised his eyebrow for a moment. "It's a Navi thing long story. Anyway I just purged some violent dark self out of me just recently, what could possibly be left?"

"You know I normally don't come to you unless it's something that can be devastating to everyone. The vision showed it escaping out of your body and showed me what it did before…the destruction it caused. Thousands upon thousands dead. That is what is inside of you."

Chad looked a little annoyed. "Sabek please—"

"We need to make sure it's contained."

"Sabek I just dealt with Angelus I don't need another reveal that there's a darker evil inside of me okay?"

Sabek's face paled, as he leaned a little closer to Chad, grabbing his shoulder. "…What did you call that dark self?"

"A-Angelus. Why?"

"…Oh no. It can't have. You didn't…" Sabek let go of Chad's shoulder and moved away, talking to himself for a while. "Let me think. In the dream he awakens inside you, gets out, then the dream shows the destruction of the last time, then it shows the darkened night sky and the busy market streets of…Station Square. Before it showed Elie's house." He slowly turned to face Chad and the others. "It'll be at Station Square."

"What? What will be?" Elie was worried now.

"Angelus, the vampire, the destroyer."

* * *

Twinkle Park was busy, filled with all kinds of people from across a range of ages. Happily enjoying themselves, living their lives to it's fullest and enjoying their time within the place that night time never ends in.

It's a little jarring for Guan Yu. His never seen it before and never expected the amount it cost to get him and the two people he had inside here. But he could see why people would pay for it.

But of course, he wasn't here for the rides. He kept a stern eye out for the one named Daxch. There was no luck with him though. No one bar the two he was with wore their coats. Everyone where wore bright or colourful clothing.

They had encountered heartless though. In the more obscure areas of the park, the back-stage areas and the depths of the pleasure castle. Small minor ones, they either ran away and disappeared or Guan Yu and his two allies managed to take them down before people were alerted to their presence.

He soon spotted Roxas and Xion once again, over in the food court and made his way over.

Both of them appeared disappointed. Roxas heard talking. "I can't believe he would run away from us. We wanted to be his friend and make him realize it's not all doom and gloom in the position we're trapped in."

Xion nodded. "Maybe he was tired of Xemnas ordering him around. He did seem very harsh on him lately…"

Xion soon spotted Guan Yu was coming over. "Oh! Any luck?"

"I'm sorry. The one we're after remains elusive."

Roxas gave off a defeated sigh. "Well, it's clear he isn't here. He just left breadcrumbs with those heartless. We've been wasting too much time. Thanks for your help Guan Yu, but I think we will need to part ways soon enough."

A voice spoke up from the side of a shut stall in this place. A woman's voice. "You're close to one that you want."

All three looked over, with Guan Yu holding his weapon at the ready, something other folks noticed and made sure to steer clear from.

The woman stepped out, wearing a black coat like Roxas and Xion but with the hood up. "He's hiding around in station square itself though. You need to chase after him. Look to emerald beach."

Roxas stood ready, as a Keyblade weapon appeared in his hand. "You're not one of us!"

"No, I am not. If you don't hurry, you may lose your quarry. Go." The woman pointed over to the exit in the distance.

Roxas wasn't going to leave yet though. "Xion, let Axel know what's going on and go outside! Guan Yu please go with her! I'm not leaving untill I find out who she is!"

The woman chuckled a little. "That is a poor idea. You sure you want to do this?"

Xion understood and was quickly leaving, whilst Guan Yu followed her. "I'm positive. Tell me who you are!"

The woman sighed, shaking her head slowly. "I'm the worst thing you'd want to face today, Roxas. Please, don't make me do this."

"We can't have impersonators like you around!"

"Impersonator…maybe I am. Maybe I'm not who I honestly believe I am anymore." She lowered her hood, showing herself to be Lucy, looking sad, as her vectors began to appear around her. "But that's all the more reason this nightmare will come to end. If he meets you now and breaks their hold you'll delay my desires!"

Axel meanwhile, had already arrived at emerald coast. He was taking a slow walk across the sandy beach, looking over at the piers, the small islands nearby. The sun was beginning to make its descent down to the horizon. "Huh…if I were a project gone crackers, where would I go and wonder around?"

His com-link triggered. "Axel this is Xion! Daxch might be at emerald coast! We just got a tip from an unknown stranger! Roxas is confronting her!"

Axel grabbed the device out of his pocket. "Confronting her? Whoa why's he doing that?"

"She's wearing the exact same coat as ours!"

"What? First Xigbar encounters a guy who has our coat, now Roxas finds a chick with one too. Did Xemnas release them as a fashion item or something without us knowing?"

"I don't know but right now we're heading to the coast, are you there?"

"Already having a look. It's beautiful at the very least, might have to book ourselves a little day off here."

"Guan Yu told his friends to come and meet us there too!"

"Oh? Well if they're so willing to lend a hand, why not? I'll wait for you guys." He put the com-link away, folded his arms and calmly waited.

Then he thought of something. "Huh…maybe I should've asked who exactly is coming to help? I can assume it wouldn't be any of handful of people here already. I mean unless Guan Yu only knows girls in skin tight bikini's and that ugly looking walrus woman sitting over there—"

"A NOBODY!"

Axel quickly looked over to the entrance of the beach. First spotting Keira, then Charlie…and the now wielding-his-keyblade Terra, looking angry as all hell. Axel leaned over a little looking concerned at what was coming at him. "Ohhh this is not what I wanted to deal with today."

As long as Terra got close enough he launched himself into the air, aiming his weapon to come straight down on Axel, who quickly formed out of two rings of fire over his hands his chakrams to block the Keyblade. "So some of you still exist huh!?" Axel commented as he pushed Terra away who just came at him again, forcing the redhead to swing his twin weapons at every strike to deflect them away. "I thought Shinra bombed you guys into nothingness!"

"You are a pest in our territory like the heartless! We'll always be there to make sure you don't damage any of worlds! Including this one!" Terra jumped back, aimed his Keyblade and fired off several sharp cylinders of ice that Axel just about managed to dodge. By this time people on the beach were running for it.

"Always be there? There's only a handful left around that location that aren't working for us! Sora, Riku, Yen Sid, Mickey and Kairi! There I just named them! Where did you guys hide off to!?" Axel was spinning his chakrams and fired back several wheels of fire, which Terra easily managed to avoid.

"Sonic boom!"

Axel had to lean RIGHT back as the yellow spinning energy circle flew past where his head was a moment ago. The moment he was upright again he met the bottom of the green boot of Charlie right in his face, sending him back in the air and rolling in the sand for a moment before getting back up on his feet, weapons ready. "Well now, and who's this unlucky companion of yours?!"

"The name's Charlie Nash! If you don't want to be defeated I suggest you leave!"

"That's cute. And where are you from exactly?" Axel had to avoid attacks from both Terra and Charlie, before using his chakrams to push Terra back and managed to cut Charlie across the chest, the latter landing on his butt for a moment, holding his wounded chest before standing up.

Axel held his weapons ready, watching them both…before a small collection of green orbs floated towards Charlie and went inside his body, causing him to momentarily glow green before his wound healed up.

He soon noticed little specks of green energy coming from Keira, who had her hands raised towards Charlie. Keira's father, Samos on their world was known as a sage of what they had as a magical element known as eco. Green eco was able to heal, provide fuel and repair technology, extracted from the Lifestream as they came to find out once they left their world behind. Keira, being his daughter had some small ability to extract it from a world's lifestream to use, as she just did with Charlie. "We're from the Hero Base!"

"The Hero Base…oh WOW that ragtag bunch of losers licking the backside of the ol' Shinra Federation? Is that who you're hanging out with these guys Keyblader?"

"The name's Terra!" Terra rushed at him again and found his weapon just missing Axel's chest, as the nobody sidestepped and swung down his chakrams, both knocked aside by Terra quick reaction timing. But quickly halted any further actions though as Xion was heard calling out. "AXEL!"

It made them all look, as the girl was quickly approaching alongside Guan Yu.

"Guan Yu!?" Terra was shocked at who was beside the girl.

"You know him?" Axel still held his weapons ready but was surprised none the less…till it clicked in his head. "He's a member of that base crew as well?"

"Terra stand down! Axel is in ally in need to assistance to capture someone dangerous!" Guan Yu explained as he arrived at the scene of the fight.

"This is a Nobody Guan Yu! Same as the girl next to you! They're in enemy from where I come from!" Terra pointed his Keyblade to Axel, who stepped back to avoid getting accidently hit.

"Enemy or not they are not a threat at this moment. Please." Guan Yu stepped over to Terra and Axel, going between them. "I have encountered Heartless within Twinkle Park. It is something this person they wish to retrieve is using. I know the Heartless as a common enemy to all of us, I'm I correct?"

Terra looked annoyed as he lowered his Keyblade. "Don't let their human looks fool you. Them and the Heartless have more in common then you think…but seeing as Axel isn't striking you down from behind at this moment with your back turned, he must want to maintain this little truce."

"I have higher priorities than you fella, believe me. Guan Yu's been helping us, so you know what they say 'any friend of yours is a friend of mine'." Axel said behind the tall Earth V warrior's back.

Keira looked over to Xion for a moment as the girl went over to Axel, before she focused on Guan Yu. "So what's going on exactly? We got called to help out."

"We're chasing after one that wears a coat like them named Daxch." Guan Yu explained. "We had gone to Twinkle Park, but a person within that place told us Daxch could be at emerald beach."

"Well this is the place, but due to what was just going on I think we vacated it." Charlie glanced around the location, before looking over at one spot. "Found him." He pointed over to one of the piers and there was a person standing at the end of it, black coat, hood up, looking out at the sea.

"Well damn, looks like he came out to hear the commotion!" Axel got past Guan Yu and went towards the pier with Xion, whilst the others followed them.

As the two nobodies started to walk on the pier, the person at the end of it started to talk, in a dull, emotionless voice. "No. This isn't my home. I don't belong here. Do I?"

Axel and Xion slowed their pace as they got closer and closer, whilst Guan Yu and the others now kept their distance. "Heeyyy Daxch. What got into you?"

"Axel." The hooded figure looked behind him. "I was hoping this was it. This was my belonging. It is not."

"Well none of us have a real place of belonging anymore besides The World That Never Was. I know it's not much but hey, free room and board right?"

"You told me you had a place of belonging. People from there exist out here."

"Barrel and Grievous." Axel shook his head a little. "Boy I wished I never opened my mouth about that. That was who I was before this Daxch. It's not who I am now."

"What about Xion? Did she have a place before this?"

Xion slowly looked down to the wooden flooring, sadness filling her face as Axel spoke again "Let's not go there. Now how about you come with us and we go home?"

"…mm." The one named Daxch turned around and stepped towards them. "Fine." He then looked past Axel and Xion who was feeling a little better that topic she didn't like was averted. He was focused right on Charlie, who was certain he could feel the guy staring him down. "You."

"Huh?" Charlie raised his eyebrow a little.

"Charlie Nash. I know you."

"You do?"

"You were about to perish against the army of beasts. You tried to chase me before the battle. You said a name…I cannot recall it."

Charlie was now confused. "Um, I have no idea what in the hell you're talking about. Sorry."

"Pity. Where is Roxas?"

Axel suddenly remembered. "Oh hell! That woman he met!" He grabbed his com-link "Roxas! We got Daxch!"

There was no answer. That alarmed Xion straight away. "He must be still in Twinkle Park!" With that, she was off, running and pushing past Terra and Keira as she headed away from the beach back to the entrance of the amusement park.

"XION WAIT! Ah jeez! I can't leave Daxch!" Axel wanted to go after her, but if the one under his care wanders off…

Guan Yu was already after Xion, with Charlie and Keira following him. Terra was watching the two nobodies carefully.

As Xion and the others drew close to the entrance, they noticed that a crowd had gathered around it, all focused on one spot. She was trying to get through, asking people to excuse her but the humans and mobians seemed more focused on whatever it was than her.

Till Guan Yu started to demand to be let through, gently pushing people aside to give himself and Xion enough space to move through the crowd until they reached the front and saw.

Several of the mobian attendees for the park were surrounding Roxas, who was slumped up against the wall, battered and bleeding, cuts to his coat soaked in blood, he was clearly out of it as one of the mobians were trying to talk to him whilst others were contacting people.

"Roxas!" Xion ran over to him. "Roxas what happened! What did she do to you!? Roxas!"

The mobian who was closest to him was about to ask her to step back when Guan Yu came over and bent down to Xion. "You must be calm, they are no doubt calling for assistance for him."

"A, are you friends of his?" The female mobian fox girl noticed Xion and Roxas had the same clothing.

"Yes we are. What happened here?" Guan Yu asked whilst Xion was trying to get Roxas to wake up.

"We're not sure. People are saying they saw him and a woman in the food court, they vanished…several minutes later, his found out here. We assumed it's teleportation and they had a fight out here but no one saw them and he was first seen like this."

Guan Yu looked over to Roxas and Xion, before moving closer and gently picking up Roxas. "We'll take him from here. Get him back to our base."

"Your base?"

"We're from the Hero Base Faction. We have medical facilities for this. Excuse us. Xion." Guan Yu started to get back through the crowd who were focused on them, before the attendants started trying to get them to disperse.

"We're not part of your base Guan Yu." Xion worriedly reminded him as they met up with Charlie and Keira waiting at the back of the crowd.

"Let us return to Axel and pass this boy to him. He is their friend." The two nodded and went ahead, whilst Guan Yu walked beside Xion. "I have no intention of taking him there unless you and Axel wish to. I hope you have your own medical equipment back home."

Xion nodded. "Of course we have, but then why did you take him?"

"Because I remember Axel saying you're not suppose to make a scene. I am merely ensuring that is the case."

"…Thank you."

Soon they met with Terra, Axel and Daxch as they were leaving the emerald beach. Guan Yu handed Roxas over to Axel, whilst Terra still remained wary.

Axel looked a little relieved. "Phew, his still alive at least…" He looked to Guan Yu. "I suppose you want that money back we wasted huh?"

Guan Yu shook his head and waved his hand in dismissal. "There is no need. You have found who you were looking for. That alone is payment enough to see I have aided."

"Yeah. Well, suppose we should get him back. Xion? Call in a doorway." Axel looked at her as she got on the com-link.

Soon enough behind the nobodies, a purple door shaped vortex appeared, with Daxch walking through first, followed by Axel who simply said "See ya." Before doing so, then Xion was about to, but stopped for a moment as she looked at Guan Yu.

"You like helping others, don't you?"

Guan Yu nodded, whilst stroking his beard a little, smiling at her. "It is the way that myself and my oath brothers have always been. Though they are gone, I will uphold their wish to support others no matter what the trouble is, be it great or small."

"You've lost them huh…Isn't it hard to keep going?"

"I know one day, we shall be reunited. Till then I will make sure we are never forgotten."

Xion smiled at that. "That's, a nice way of looking at things…Thank you again Guan Yu." With that she left them and the purple door faded away.

"…That Daxch guy worries me." Charlie said to them. "Especially when he was focused with me."

"It was rather odd. Maybe someone's impersonating you?" Keira suggested to him.

"Why though?"

"Dunno. Could've been a Navi pretending to be you, parallel universe you, you from a different timeline…anything is possible. Let's be thankful we didn't have to keep being violent…Terra." She looked at him.

"You don't know them like I do. I'll explain when we're back at the base."

* * *

Chad, Jak, Daxter, Samus, Elie and Sabek were slowly walking around the market stalls and shops of Station Square, in the midst of the city. The sky was a mixture of purple, red and golden as the sun was slowly setting, with a small mixture of clouds.

The place was filled with Mobians of various species as well as humans. Buying selling trinkets and items that were interesting to them.

This was not the case for these six…well, one of them was clearly looking at all the little objects and shiny ornaments for sale. Jak seemed to make them stop at times to have a look. "You know, I think this would be perfect to send to Ashelin."

Daxter groaned out, rolling his eyes as he was on Jak's shoulder "Come on man! This is the same thing as the last one! I told you that unless you think she wants a silver spinning spiky ball on a fancy glass stand, don't bother! Sheesh!"

They were waiting for the night time to come around, and were trying to waste time by looking around and blending in.

Samus was keeping close to Chad, with people especially avoiding her due to her armor looking a little intimidating and she could see a few were trying to figure out if they knew her from somewhere or not. "So Chad…wanna grab something for that sweet lady you're keeping an eye on?"

Chad snapped out of his daze. He had been thinking about the kind've questions that Elie might ask. "Hm what?"

"Ruth. Don't you want to get her something?"

"Well, suppose I could…wait 'sweet lady'?"

Samus chuckled a little. "Took your time on that."

"What's with you and pairing me with her? Last night you made Ridley send that light over to set the mood, now this."

Samus shrugged as she looked on into the crowd they were going by. "Why not? It's amusing to see you look a little flustered after all this time. I've just seen you look dead inside and showing it this whole time till you walked into the bar."

"Well please don't. I'm just helping her get comfortable in the base as instructed by Dr Wily and Light…still a small gift won't hurt I suppose." Chad started looking at the shop windows.

"At least it'll make her feel like someone cares in that place. Make her feel welcome…why not that?" Samus pointed into one of the shop windows, stopping Chad for the moment whilst the others walked on by.

It was a small silver rose, with a red gem in the middle of the flower segment, the stem being wielded onto a silver stand.

"…That'll send the wrong signal."

Samus frowned at him. "No it won't Chad. She'll love it and simply thank you. That's all. Just get it for her and just hint to the fact that this is what friends can do for one another. She'll know your position in this then and as a learning Navi it'll teach her a good quality."

"…Wow." Chad looked at her. "You sound awfully sensible right now."

"I'm sober."

"Oh." Chad looked back at the rose. 8,000 gil. The corner of his lip curved upwards. "You know what…that'll do. I'll get her that."

Soon Chad and Samus caught up with their group, with Chad carrying a small blue gift wrapped box that had a red ribbon.

They continued their venture around until Sabek stopped them at a café that Chad recognized. "Hey, that's the Speedy Hippo."

As Sabek led them into the lovely atmosphere and towards a spare table Daxter looked at Chad. "Is it any good?"

"Oh yeah, Me, Sonic, Tails, Amy and Mighty used to hang around in this place. It was here Mighty introduced me to Sabek. Don't touch their massive mean chili dogs though. Those things go in you and out of you just as fast. Sonic can attest to that."

Whilst Jak, Daxter, Sabek and Samus settled down at a table, Elie did not. She watched them, then focused on Chad, before motioning him to follow her, which he did, heading back out of the café and into a quiet corner of the street.

Chad knew what was coming.

Elie turned to face him. "When should I expect her body? Or does she already have a grave?"

Chad took a moment to try and say this in the best way possible. "Anna…What was left was almost…there were just tiny fragments Elie, I'm sorry. We can't bury her. Dr Wily has placed a grave mark for her near his fortress, along with all the others who died that were members of our base."

"…Did she die slowly?"

"No. I think it was sudden. One moment she was there then, it was over. Chaos and Richard were there. I rushed Chaos and killed him, tried to take out Richard for killing Anna but…"

Elie looked angry, as tears were coming back. "You weren't strong enough."

"No. I wasn't. As I said before I threw everything I had. It wasn't enough." Chad looked pained at looking back on that fight. "I thought I killed him, but despite it, he was laughing, crippled on the floor."

"You were supposed to keep her safe."

"I did Elie. I did everything I could. We even fell in love, letting me get closer to her and I thought I could always protect her."

Elie gave a small bitter chuckle. "So you really did become her boyfriend…"

"And I failed. I took down Unicron, I fought off Darkmega, but I can't beat her murderer!" Chad felt a pain swelling inside…of both guilt, and loss. "I keep checking on him, keep hoping the docs find a way to kill him but so far it's not possible and it hurts! I keep facing the killer only to remember I lost her to him!"

Elie had noticed, and it made her listen to him as he turned away from her, frustration evident in his body language.

"Now I'm being made to go around and save others when all I wanted for so long is to play the waiting game till the docs find a solution! I'm out of that base, and every once in a while a little voice in my damn head is reminding me HE is still in there! Anna's killer is still there!"

"…Why did you come here?" Elie now asked him.

Chad looked at her. "…Because you're in danger. I have a deity who gives me updates on what is coming next. Told me about Unicron. Now he said about a prophecy to do with you. He wants me to take you to the base to be safe."

"Safe?! In the same place as my sisters' killer is going to be?!"

"I don't like the idea either but so far the deity hasn't failed me!"

"He didn't tell you Anna was going to die though did he!"

"He couldn't have known Elie! What happened there was something out of his control!" Chad quickly glanced behind Elie. "Sabek?"

Elie spun around and indeed, Sabek was standing there, looking surprised Chad spotted him. "Oh, I just overheard about a prophecy related to Elie and listened in. I was hoping to get a few more clues to guess if I'm right on which one you're talking about."

"You know of one?" Chad was surprised.

"Well one connected to her family. I thought more to Anna than Elie but I might've guessed wrong. See there is one that connects to her family, one that could bring back an evil that matches the age of Unicron."

"Well if I took down Unicron I can take this one too. Hit me." Chad walked over to stand beside Elie…who clearly wasn't comfortable with him at the moment.

"This one might be a little more concerning due to his magical powers. What Elie must carry though is something known as the Mark of Scath. Now I saw Anna with the mark in the visions years ago, on the back of her left hand. When she appeared distressed or angered it flared up…" Sabek looked down at Elie's hand.

And on the back of her left hand was a twisted, faint red glowing 'S', which she slowly lifted up to look at, stunned. "That's…That's never been there before."

"Most likely. But I think Anna's death may have just passed the mark of the beings awakening from her to her nearest blood relation. Come on, let's head in the café whilst waiting for the night. I'll explain about the being. Trigon."

He headed back inside, with Chad beginning to follow, before he heard Elie say "We still need to finish talking Chad."

"What do you want me to say Elie? I said I'm sorry. I'm hurt over her death and I couldn't do anything."

"…How long did you take you to come to me and say she's dead Chad. How long did it take you to remember she had a sister in her life once?"

Chad turned to face her, giving a deep sigh, before getting ready for the worst, closing his eyes. "It's been three months Elie. Anna lost her life three months ago—"

Slap.

He knew something like that was gonna happen. He heard Elie take a few steps towards him the moment he said three months.

"You honestly expect me to come with you to that godforsaken place? Where they wait this long to tell somebody that their sister is DEAD!?"

Chad turned his head back to her whilst his right cheek was feeling sore. "That was because of a failure to inform the docs about you."

"BOTH OF YOU!?"

"Elie if I even knew she didn't tell them I—"

"Don't! Don't bother! I'm done with you! Forget this! I'm heading home!" Elie turned and headed away from the café. "Fuck the hand mark! Fuck Angelus! I'm done with being near you Chad Oswald!"

"ELIE COME BACK!" Chad wanted to go after her. "YOU MIGHT BE IN DANGER!...ELIE!"

She didn't even look back, soon enough she vanished into the crowd of people, a majority that had stopped to look at Chad…as he was crying, looking down at himself, clenching his fists. "I'm so sorry! I tried! I honestly tried…I can't protect Anna but I have to do something right!" He started to chase after her now. "Elie! I can't let you go alone! Please come back!"

For the next ten minutes, Chads pleas to her fell on deaf ears as she got back to the train station and just got on the next one heading to her home. As she sat on the train she got her phone out.

Chad meanwhile got to the train station, and noticed she wasn't there. He wanted to Chaos Control after the train but a voice in his mind spoke to him. 'Give her space and some time Chad! Maybe Sabek can talk to her better than we can!'

"But I can't let Elie—"

'Just talk with Sabek. Find out about whatever is going on that's gonna drag her into it and let him know Elie has backed out. Focus Chad. We have an old friend to deal with. Our dark soul, finally given form.'

"…You're right." Chad mumbled to himself before heading back out of the station. "And if I let him get away it's only going to make things worse."

* * *

Richard was in his prison, eyes closed, allowing the drift of time to go on without disturbing it. There was no need. This was all a waiting a game for him now.

He heard the door outside open. He was predicting Chad was going to talk to him. He probably felt their little encounter the previous night wasn't enough. The way he said about Roll though, Richard had wondered why Chad was much more alert about her. Had his mind wipe failed? He'd be disappointed if that were the case…then again when she was timid at times and fell quite lovingly into his arms before his mind was permanently warped last time. Maybe having Roll back wouldn't be so bad to mess around with Chad with.

He heard the click of the speaker and was ready.

"We need to talk."

Richard felt quite surprised. Didn't want to show it in his voice or anything though. "Oh? My light self? What do you want to talk about? I thought you hated my guts?"

"I do. Believe me I do. But I have a few questions to ask."

Richard chuckled. "A few questions. You would never run to me with questions because you know Dark souls can lie and deceive people to cause confusion and fear…So something must've happened to make you turn to me, something drastic in your life and you would swallow your fear and anger of me."

"…Maybe something has."

"Let me think about it." Richard's claws started to move, as if trying to feel around the room. "Chad was deeply concerned with Roll the last time we met. You came in then as well and clearly didn't like how he was. But Roll is a lifeless corpse with her future being stuck permanently on a medical bed till the end of time."

"Maybe it isn't anymore." Dr Richard answered him.

"…And if you're here…ohhhh, I see what's happened. That's really interesting. Tell me, does she remember or does she just hold her name? Hu-Navi's always keep the name."

"She doesn't remember. She has the name."

Richard nodded slowly. "Ruth Bullen…How sweet. Our 'sister' is back."

"MY sister."

"Adopted. By Albert no less from the reject lab. You were all due for termination and they took pity on you. She was a tag along."

"He loved her as much as me."

"More like he was more attached to her then he was to you, like you were when it came to sweet little Ruth. You always stood by her side…You even started to develop stronger feelings beyond being adopted, but they settled once she died didn't they? She's still the world to you, and now she's back, with no memories…and no doubt you're worried about…Chad." Richard looked up towards the camera, smirking. "Chad Oswald."

"You know him quite well. I want to ask you about him. Gramps has a…positive view about the boy."

Richard chuckled. "I could tell you the worst lies possible to make you despise him if you want."

"I expect you to be honest."

"…" Richard looked around at the walls. "Well, a little honest information won't hurt I guess. But why exactly? There are all kinds of people in this dump that could tell you their stories about his actions around here."

"Because I've been looking up the conversations between you and him. Gramps and Light may have tried to block access but I have my ways. Right now I've turned off the recording for this as I don't need the old man knowing. Now let's get this over with before I feel sick with talking with you. I noted that during your conversations, whenever hourglasses come up Chad gets defensive. The more recent talks you had you even mentioned a choice Chad made."

"I'll spoil it for you now. Chad killed his girlfriend Anna for our sister."

"…" Dr Richard was heard sighing. "A lie?"

"Truth. He let her die for someone he didn't love…makes you wonder if he'll do it again to the next person who gets close to him to form a relationship."

"Has he always been reckless?"

"From day one. You barely missed him. If you snapped out of your depressive funk before I got injected you would've met him…and trust me, you wouldn't have liked him either."

"A lie?"

"The truth again light me. You suck at guessing. He was always rushing into things and displaying this level of confidence that only those of the Primus bloodline can really pull off and have a high chance of success."

"…He is looking after Ruth. Her guardian. You know that position?"

"Well enough. If that's the case, then you don't have to worry whatsoever light me. Chad will take good care of her, protect her, not place her life in any danger and certainly wouldn't form a relationship with her, winning her heart and loyalty only to betray it later on like he did with Anna and leave her cold, alone and dead."

"...Was that a lie?"

Richard gave a little sigh as he was grinning. "Oh damn, you caught me this time."

"I'm done for now." Suddenly the metal hoses came out the walls, and in a second, the whole room was engulfed in flames. "Liars get punished. I'll see you around." Dr Richard was last heard saying before Richard just managed to hear the clicking from the camera followed by the doors opening and closing.

"I'll still be here, light me…" Richard said to himself as his skin slowly started to burn off. He was used to the pain and heat. He knew in about five minutes this little flame shower will end.

Dr Richard made his way back to the main room and headed to the labs. There waiting for him was Nyu, who had chosen the blue shirt in the end. She was busy fiddling with a Rubik's cube Dr Richard left her as he went to talk to his dark self. "Hey Nyu. Any luck?"

"Nyu nyu!" She smiled, showing him that within several twists and turns of the cube…she finished it.

"Well aren't you a bright spark?" Dr Richard was quite surprised. "Wait, did you finish it earlier and waited for me to get back and show off?"

"Nyu." Nyu nodded.

"Figures. Gonna have to get you something much more advanced while I'm busy…maybe even get you to help me out Nyu…Shame letters just look like gibberish to you right now or else I might be able to use a typer to let you talk normally." He walked over to the computer and sat down, with Nyu walking over and watching him.

"Nyu." She pointed at the screen, to the corner of it which showed a flashing letter.

Dr Richard clicked on it and found it to be a video message from Dr Robotnik, who looked agitated.

"Of course the time I need to talk with you Albert and Thomas you're otherwise engaged! I could use the com-links…bah forget it, the area is closed off anyway so you can get back to me on this. Anyways, Thomas, Albert. I request that you send Chad Oswald or a few of your members to Unicron's head once again. Despite the brief report that Chad scared off Sephiroth and Chaos, as well as slaying something called a 'Phantom', there appears to be something left behind that has been just as effective at killing our reacquiring team who went inside the head."

Dr Robotnik made a black screen appear now, with 'Visual damage' flashing once in a while on the screen as he talked again. "We have the audio recording of the captain, but the visors failed to capture anything due to unknown interference. We also have an image that I'll show shortly from the only survivor."

Then the audio started to play, with a male voice talking.

" _This is captain Allayer beginning the recording for reclamation of site 'Unicron'. Due to unknown issues I am unable to transmit visual images, audio only. Eye pathways show greater damage than what they were before the interference of Sephiroth. Claw marks noted as well as fire damage. Proceeding to brain control room to asses the damage to decide if it is still a safe location for further extraction and research."_

There was a voice behind the captain. _"Sir this place is really giving me the creeps."_

" _Relax solider. It' s daytime, the sunlight's coming in and there's only us around. It's okay. Now, as I was. Brain control room has received much more damage than previous. Markings of high levels of heat damage in one location, further smaller claw marks on the ground, a new hole in the ceiling, created by something smashing through it from within I'm guessing by its shape."_

That other voice spoke again _. "Hello?"_

" _What's the matter trooper?"_

" _I just…I swear I just saw someone move near the walls."_

Another voice spoke, a woman. _"Yep me too."_

And another voice, another man. _"I'm so glad I got my brown jumpsuit on today."_

The captain spoke again _. "Easy does it people. Split. Five of you go and check out the sight you think you saw it, flashlights on. Everyone else slowly spread out and watch for movement."_

 _There were mumblings and footsteps, before things went quiet. "Thank Blind Io. Now as I was saying, in regard to the new damage the brain control room still seems viable and safe enough for—what was that?"_ The captain was heard breathing a little faster now as static started interfering with the recording. _"Wait…I know something just moved right beside me—who the hell are yo-"_

The audio log ended, with a loud high pitched, horrible inhumane woman's scream.

It made Nyu quickly move back in fear, whilst Dr Richard certainly wasn't ready for it jumping a little in the chair and muttering loudly "Fucking hell!"

The screen showed Dr Robotnik again. "We can confirm that last voice didn't match anyone we sent. The image I'm about to show is the only one the survivor was willing to take before fleeing out of Unicron's head."

It was a blurry image, caught in the moment. It showed clearly that the SF troopers who had entered the brain control room…had exploded inside out. Their entire front of their armor had burst open with their organs loosely hanging out and about in the room, pools of blood formed around them. Just barely able to be made out, it was clear one other trooper was firing his rifle at something off screen.

Soon Robotnik was back again. "The survivor is currently in the Midgar hospital. Can't get anything out of him, all he keeps repeating is about how 'it grabbed my heart. It showed me my heart. I have to get away I have to leave before she kills me too.' Sounds little too dramatic to me, but whatever the case it's clearly something Chad missed. I want it cleaned out before I have to explain to Rufus why we can't continue messing around with Unicron's head! ...Oh and if it's sorted in three days I'll throw in a little cash to keep you guys quiet. You know the drill." With that the video message ended.

Dr Richard looked at Nyu, who looked a little paler now. "Well, looks like Chad's pissed someone off."

"N-Nyu."

"You said it Nyu." Dr Richard got up out the chair, ready to go and tell his gramps in the hospital room before the sun sets and the old man retires to his room. "Well, whatever it was you actually wanted to say anyway." He left the labs.

* * *

Notes:

1\. In this Universe, Axel is Lea's actual name…so no Lea here. He's always been Axel, thus the same for everyone else in the Organization XIII team.

2\. Roxas and Sora are entirely seperate beings.

3\. Elie Hael is a character who belongs to Chad much like her sister does…except she's normally Keene for her last name, this time it's Hael, so hush.

4\. Nyu.

\- dragonridley


	5. Mobius: Dark Chad

" _Wait…I know something just moved right beside me—who the hell are yo-"_

The audio log ended, with a loud high pitched, horrible inhumane woman's scream.

That scream from the audio was now heard in the labs by Dr Wily, Dr Light, Dr Hikari, Dr Richard, Keira who had just got back from Mobius and Nyu, who once again flinched at the scream.

It was the third time she heard it. The docs had replayed the entire message from Dr Robotnik, and had right now just replayed the captain's recording before he died, whilst on the computer screen was the image that had been taken during the SF troopers being slaughtered.

Dr Wily looked over to Dr Light, then to Yuichiro. Thomas had paled a little, and Yuichiro looked disturbed. Both seemed to have now figured out something Wily had picked up on the first time they heard it. "It is one isn't it?" Yuichiro finally said.

"Along with what the survivor mentioned about it's a 95% possibility." Dr Wily sighed after saying that, turning to Dr Richard, Keira and Nyu. "Richard, do you recognize the scream?"

Dr Richard shrugged. "No. I don't recall any hellish scream like that."

"…Maybe this will refresh your memory." Dr Wily turned back to the computer "Thomas, I'm going to access the SC files. Going to need your confirmation."

"Are you sure that's fine with Keira and that girl in here?" Dr Light questioned.

"Yes. One can't speak and we can trust Keira."

Thomas understood and stood beside Albert as the screen told them whatever Wily was trying to access, it was denied. Wily put in a string of letters and numbers, then stood aside and let Thomas do the same, before taking back his position at the keyboard and pressing enter, with the screen telling them that access was now granted.

"SC files?" Keira wondered.

Dr Richard seemed to click on it after a little while. "Wait, docs, gramps, you're not saying that was a—"

"It's bound to be." Dr Wily glanced at his grandson, before opening a file that was titled 'Super Children Incident 224' In it, it had a list of images, which Wily started to open up.

Each one was of either corridors or some kind of containment lab. Wily was flickering through the images rapidly.

"Super Children? I know of that programme. It was to create a human with a natural ability to use their mind to control matter and command energy sources." Keira was a little surprised. "It was a botched up job that led to several sectors in SCI being closed down and disbanded. Why are we—oh."

The image that came up next answered her question. It showed a corridor…with several people in lab coats, man and woman…the front of them all had imploded outwards, their guts spilled to the floor.

"Super Children. A project that only the surface of it was ever made known to the public. It was included two substances to function and make a human evolve to have the abilites you mentioned Keira; the illegal substance Phazon that could only be harvested on specific worlds on the outer rim, and the ever hard to get element Chaos Liquid, mostly found on Mobius and neighbouring worlds. One side effect no one suspected would occur at the time was a state beyond death."

Dr Wily went to the next image, it was the same corridor, but now at the end of it, was the shadow of a little boy…except there was no boy around to make the shadow.

"Thanks to what happened to them, many achieved a way of surviving outside of a functioning, living body. Ghosts if you want to call them that. But with the effects of Phazon and Chaos, their mental state was VERY unstable."

The next image now showed a boy suddenly in the middle of the corridor looking up towards the camera, pure white eyes staring lifelessy, blue liquid oozing down his cheeks and grey short hair whilst all he wore was a torn, ragged grey one piece clothing with a noticeable hole in his chest, showing rotten flesh on the inside.

Dr Wily motioned at the picture. "The shadow is them showing their presence. We call it the alert phase. If this is seen, they've taken direct interest. We call it the panic phase. You can see their body and the state they were in prior to death. One or two incidents had them communicate in this phase. But normally this occurs."

He went to the next image. The boy's face and body were now distorted, twisted and seemingly longer, his eyes were pitch black his mouth open and seemingly just as black as his eyes, black…limbs of somekind almost like slender arms, two of them were coming out of his back arching over his shoulders are just vaguely seen and the blue liquid turned blood red as he was clearly much closer to the camera now, lunging towards it.

"This is the death phase. They can jump to this phase from the panic phase at any time with no warning. Often they produce a scream like the recording. Upon touching the target it cause numerous ruptures of the organs and almost instantaneous death if the child demands it. They can also extend their abilites to a certain radius around them, causing a unique fear to people who witness it at this point or the panic phase if they so choose. They can cause you to have highly disturbing and horrific mental images. Numerous people faced with it despite being told before it is an illusion, are strongly convinced it is real and take months on end to recover from the ordeal."

"Why 'alert', 'panic' and 'death'?" Keira asked, hinting to the name of the phases.

Dr Wily looked over at her as he closed the file. "Because back at the time it was something to be very concerned about if one was spotted as a shadow on the walls. It was out of containment and deceased in an improper manner. If it showed its body, it's after something or someone, whoever saw them had to alert everyone as quickly as possible so a lockdown sequence could begin, as the death phase for that person was about to follow suit."

"Deceased in an improper manner…not in the incinerator." Dr Richard looked to his gramps.

"Ah, you remember the machine. The children seem to need an earthly tie to our realm of existence to appear as spirits or ghosts. Once it's destroyed they appear to simply move on."

"So they can haunt around their body?" Keira wondered.

"We don't know the range they can go. That's never been observed as their ghostly appearance was always regarded as a maximum level threat due to the difficulties of stopping them. Energy based technology and weapons seem to stun them and even once or twice cause them to disperse for a short while, but they came back in the end so long as their body remains. They can even animate other corpses so long as they're not incapacitated to reach the child's intended target." Dr Wily looked at them all now. "The fact this, we have a Super Child in Unicron somehow. We need to know why. Why would one appear there? No projects were ever done on Gaia VII as far as we know."

Dr Richard thought of an idea. "Could Chad have something do to with it? Dr Robotnik said it was after he was there this has happened so by logic…"

"The boy has never met one of them before." Dr Wily stopped for a moment, thinking over that statement before looking at Dr Light. "Has he?"

"Not as far as I know, though I recall Chad reminding Darkmega about a downed ship on Gaia VII. Said about a ghost child there. They were in the bar in the Zebes base when they discussed it." Dr Light then got on the com-link. "I'll speak with Darkmega, see if he can shed further light on it."

"So how's it going to help with our problem?" Keira looked to the docs. "If it's a ghost that can only be put off."

Dr Hikari guessed what his father and Albert were up to. "If Chad knew of where this Super Child was before it appeared in Unicron's head, we may be able to terminate it's body. If not, we can use energy strikes to displace it and hopefully drive it back to wherever it rests."

Dr Light was now heard talking to Darkmega, as Dr Wily agreed with what Yuichiro said. "Exactly, so long as we can get that thing out of Unicron or send it wherever souls go off to, that's all I care about. Chad's plan to get Elie Hael here will have to be put on hold."

"Well it's not like we've gotten an update from him on the matter. His taken sometime with this." Dr Richard pointed out. "You think she said no to him?"

"Oh very much so after he and Anna didn't tell us about Elie. Still, I'm sure he'll think a way around to convince her in time. We'll give her access to Anna's belongings that we have and all data files related to her once she gets here. Let her know we don't want to hide anything from her."

"Yeah, because you guys NEVER do that to anyone else." Dr Richard sarcastically answered with, rolling his eyes a little.

Dr Wily could only glare a moment before noticing Dr Light put the com-link away. "And?"

Thomas nodded. "It is a Super Child Chad met. The description he told Darkmega adds up."

"Then let's get in contact with Chad and get him over to Unicron's head. If he didn't notice the Super Child after their first encounter and it's gotten all the way there it's safe to say it doesn't want to harm him anymore. We can use that to distract it whilst we send Laserman to Gaia VII to destroy the body. Thomas get the directions of where the downed ship is from Darkmega. If his unsure contact Rufus."

* * *

In the café known as the Speedy Hippo, Chad had to explain about Elie once Sabek noticed that she hadn't followed them in.

He was, admittedly, a little disappointed by the lack of care from both Anna and Chad about the girl prior to this. "Chad, it was rather thoughtless of you both to not let anyone know about Elie."

Sitting around the table was Jak with a coffee, Samus with a bottle of 'Mobius finest' beer, Daxter with a small (to them, to him a large) glass drink of cola. Sabek had a coffee of his own and Chad had a glass of Dr Pepper. The mobian lad sighed on hearing this. "I know Sabek, but I honestly expected Anna to tell them, I didn't know things were THAT bad between them. Granted I should've picked up on Anna never mentioning her sister but I was busy being, well…me."

"Well now thanks to this turn of events will be much more difficult to convince her you're here to protect her from that mark."

Chad shook his head. "I need to get her to the base to make sure she's safe Sabek."

"…You expect her to drop her duty as ambassador and leave this world?" Sabek sounded very surprised.

Chad felt worse now, cursing and mumbling for a few moments as he looked down at his drink. "Thanks for the reminder. Now I'm here to try and get her away from that, goddamn Zuo Ci what the hell are you making me do…"

"Zuo Ci?" Sabek raised his eyebrow in curiosity. "I've heard that name before. A deity right?"

Chad looked at his friend "Yeah, he's the deity watching over me. Said about Elie and a danger she's in thanks to her bloodline."

"The mark of skath? Trigon?"

"He was vague about it, as he often is with things."

"Well that's what her marking is. It means when the stars align and she is overcome by emotions, she can bring the great tyrant Trigon to our world. It would explain why Zuo Ci wants you to watch her, because I'm sure in a week or so the star alignment will be occurring. He no doubt wants to avoid Trigon returning."

"But she's left us to head home. She won't accept anything we say now."

Sabek smiled a little. "Give me time. I'll try to convince her. She may have to work within the Hero Base instead of here, but at least then it'll keep things calm."

That's when Chad's com-link went off "Chad, Chad this is Dr Wily. I need you to teleport over to Unicron's head. We have a problem that needs you."

Chad sighed, answering the call. "Doc I'm busy alright? Elie isn't convinced yet and I need a little more time."

"Chad leave her for now, we can try again later. This one is urgent."

Samus smiled at him, moving the gift he had for Ruth towards her. "Get going. We'll stay with Sabek to help convince Elie."

Jak wasn't so sure "Well actually I wanted to head back, kinda had a look around, enjoyed the trip and want to get some rest."

Samus glared at him. "If I recall you and your pal still owe me cash for Twinkle Park. How about you sticking around counts as starting to pay off that debt?"

Jak give it a moment's thought, knowing any longer might lead to an aggressive bounty hunter. "You know what that's fair enough. We'll stay."

Chad was a little thankful to them as he got up from the table. "Well, I hope you have a better chance without me. I take it you'll keep the gift—"

"—Safe and sound. Don't worry, your lady friend will get her gift."

"Stop that." With that, Chad found himself covered in a blue light before vanishing.

* * *

Chad now found himself back outside Unicron, the sun having just gone down…the head of the planet killer looking very, very uninviting in this light.

But he soon found he wasn't alone.

"Hey."

He quickly turned and walking up him was Diamas, Shademan and Darkmega. "The doctors sent you?"

Diamas nodded, though it was clear he wasn't too pleased. "The doctors feel that you will need extra eyes here and with my knowledge of the place, I may be able to find what you need to look for."

Chad raised his eyebrow a little. "And did they tell you guys? Because all I got was I had to come back to this dead place."

Shademan now spoke. "I have been briefly informed. We are to be alert for an aggressive spirit in the place. A child spirit. It has killed a squad of SF troopers, and the docs feel you may have triggered it coming here."

"Why?"

"You were here last and it didn't appear before then within the last three months."

Diamas now turned to Shademan. "A child spirit? Then I am of no use. I have never contained children inside my old—I mean Unicron's body. I consumed all living matter besides Richard and the Zerg."

"Ah come on, what's not to like getting out and about huh?" Darkmega got his dark buster ready. "We're only dealing with ghosts anyway."

"Highly aggressive ghosts." Chad pointed out.

"That has killed people." Shademan also pointed out.

"…Well anyway. It'll be interesting at least Diamas." Darkmega started walking ahead, with the vampire Navi and Chad following.

Diamas gave a small sigh, before going along with it. "I suppose it will not hurt."

Going into the eye of Unicron, this time it made Chad come to a stop, making the others halt as well.

There were no lights within the passageway, the corpses from before remained…but there was a cold wind flowing through here now, and boy did it send shivers down Chad's spine. He was sure he could hear a faint howling in the distance, deeper within Unicron.

Diamas confirmed it. "Something is within this place." He pulled out his master sword. "Remain alert, Chad."

Chad nodded, before they all proceeded deeper inside.

They soon entered the mind room of Unicron, dark and eerie thanks to no lights being on and only small parts of it were lit up the moonlight coming through the holes in the ceiling…and boy did the fresh bodies make this place smell much worse then before. Chad had gagged a little when he saw the troopers looking back they had been pulled inside out, their organs littered on the ground.

"Ugh, goddamn this is like that space station when it's clone storage room had bodies littered in it…" Chad tried to focus away from the bodies to see if he could spot anything unusual.

Diamas ventured over to one of the corpses, looking at it carefully. "This is nothing I've seen before. It's like they exploded. Armor faults?"

Darkmega shook his head, walking past Diamas heading to one of the broken computers. "Probably this spirit they said about…though I never thought it could do something like that…maybe if we can get some power here it might help us."

"I don't think it'll happen. The doctors informed me the SF have cut all power in this place until the issue has been resolved." Shademan was looking towards the darkest locations in the room. His eyesight allowed him to see quite clearly in the darkness, yet he didn't spot anything unusual.

Chad though, was sure something was close to him. He kept getting shivers down his spine, and started to get the feeling whatever it was, it was right behind him. "…Can people tell me if they have the feeling something is watching their every move?"

"Nope." Darkmega answered.

"I'm fine." Diamas replied.

"I'm alright as well. I'm going to contact the doctors for some assistance." Shademan got on his com-link. "Dr Wily, begin the sensor sweep through my com-link's point of origin."

"Understood. Sweep commencing now."

In took only a few seconds of a small quick beeping sounds from his com-link, before it went into a slow, alarming beep.

"Spirit of the target confirmed in your location Shademan." Dr Wily quickly warned him.

This made everyone ready their weapons and glancing around. Darkmega was the one who turned to look behind Chad after what Chad mentioned just now.

…He was certain that there was a shadow on the wall nearby Chad. It wasn't Chad's because it had long hair and matched Chad's height.

He saw the shadow walk on the wall, heading into the darker locations of the room. "Hey! It's over there!" He was pointing to where it went.

Chad looked over, as did Diamas and Shademan.

Shademan could see into the area perfectly. "You sure?"

"Yes!"

"I don't see it. Anyone else?"

Diamas shook his head, as did Chad. "I can't see jack all over there."

"Well I spotted someone entirely different from the rest of us! It was a shadow!" Darkmega was quickly looking around the room.

Shademan got on his com-link. "Dr Wily Darkmega has encountered it in the alert phase. Please advise."

Chad recalled a moving shadow before. He looked to Darkmega. "Was, was it a child Darkmega?"

"No…Why?"

"Well remember back on Gaia VII I saw that child ghost that was a shadow on the wall."

"Yeah, but it might not be—"

Two of the SF trooper bodies started to twitch, shifting onto their feet despite the lack of sight, organs and several muscles, their arms limp, but they were clearly leaning in the direction of Chad and the others.

"And it just revived the dead! So yes it is!" Chad straight away aimed his hand towards one of the corpses.

"Chad do not attack! No one attack!" Dr Wily yelled through their com-links.

"Doc!?"

"Keep still and don't show any sign of alarm! If the bodies move towards you and clearly show sign of aggression then attack in self defence! The child know it's been spotted and is using intimidation!"

The bodies weren't moving towards them, they were just leaning back and forth in their current position.

"So if it's using them, it means we did actually locate it at one point?" Diamas held his weapon close to him, glancing around to try and spot any unusual shadows.

"Correct. Try to pinpoint it's location again!"

Chad felt his left arm go cold, as if something had wrapped itself around that arm. He quickly looked at it and noticed he had goosebumps, but nothing else…before he then felt a wave of sadness and confusion wash over him. He tried to tell the others. "Guys, something, something isn't right…something touched my arm and my heads gone funny."

Shademan looked over for a moment, then at the wall ahead of Chad, past the two bodies. There was nothing there. He moved near Chad and looked around to the walls. "It must be quickly moving around the room to avoid being sighted. Dr Wily?"

"You just need to hold on and remain calm. Laserman is almost at the source. Keep its interest in all of you without it entering the panic phase."

"Wait what!?" Darkmega grabbed his com-link. "Do you mean we're just bait for this thing!?"

Shademan then picked up on something, looking at Chad. "Did you hear it?"

"What?"

"The whisper? It called you by name."

Chad shook his head, but now, he felt tears well up in his eyes.

Darkmega was focusing back on the com-link. "Wily are we bait or not?!"

"A distraction! Just to keep it entertained whilst Laserman terminates it for you!"

Shademan now frowned. "You seriously cannot hear it right now? Why are you crying?"

Chad couldn't say why. He just was. He wiped the tears aside, trying to listen out for whatever Shademan can hear.

There was nothing but the creaking walls.

Darkmega stopped focusing on the bodies which still remained in their idle position. "I didn't hear anything."

Diamas agreed with that. "Nope. Nothing."

"Very strange. You once had the same level of hearing as me before Chad...ah." Shademan moved closer to Chad, looking down at the floor. "There it is."

Chad looked down.

There was a shadow holding onto his arm's shadow, it was leaning on him. Chad was quickly thinking of the possible reasons it would be doing this. "Why would a child ghost…what is it doing exactly?"

Shademan was now standing right beside Chad, looking right down at the shadow. "I don't know. It keeps mumbling. It appears to be scared. I wonder if you can communicate with it. Let me speak to Dr Wily to see if communication is possible."

As Shademan got on his com-link, the two undead bodies appeared to convulse, then fall to the floor as Chad got a major chill down his spine, looking away from his shadow and closing his eyes for a moment.

"It appears our foe is calming down." Diamas noted.

"Dr Wily this is Shademan. Is it possible to communicate with one in an alert phase? Please advise."

Dr Wily quickly answered. "Communication is possible but remember it is a child. It may not understand entirely. Talk as plainly as possible and—hold on Laserman is trying to contact me."

Darkmega looked down now, focusing on Chad's shadow. "Hey guys? It's not there now."

Shademan cursed under his breath after looking down and noticing it was now just Chad's shadow, looking around once again shortly after. "It must've moved away the moment it figured out something was amiss back at it's original body. It may be trying to head back to it."

Chad appeared to zone out though, something Darkmega spotted with the way his face seemed to relax and he was now staring off at the distance, mumbling "Please stop it…please…" Chad fell to his knees and placed his hands over his face. Soon enough, he was heard crying.

"Chad!?" Darkmega quickly rushed over and bent down to him. "Hey. Get a hold of yourself!"

"I…I don't know why this is happening…" He moved his hands away from his face, which had gone red, tears streaming down his cheeks. He was clearly back with them now. "I can't control myself. I just need to cry. I, I just feel like I've lost everything…That I'm holding onto the last remaining piece of my life."

Shademan spoke with Wily again. "Dr Wily something is occurring with Chad. His unable to control his emotions. Alert phase appears to have ceased."

"Super Children who get too close to those who can be sensitive to their presence can leave an emotional mark. It's another form of communication. Whatever Chad is feeling is no doubt what the child feels." Dr Wily explained. "I'm just going to do another sweep."

There was a series of small beeping sounds coming off Shademan's com-link…then nothing.

"Seems all clear. No more presence detected." Dr Wily gave a small sigh. "It's safe to say it's retreated. Laserman will handle things from here. While you guys are there for now though, I wonder if you can extract anything of use for us to tinker over. Diamas you know Unicron well enough, do you not? Is there anything we could take?"

Diamas looked bemused. "You want to steal under the Shinra Federations nose?"

"Why not?"

Diamas looked over to the broken computers. "Well, I do know of where the data nodes are. Perhaps we can retrieve one or two. Shademan, Darkmega." Diamas started walking over to the damaged computers with Shademan following, whilst Darkmega didn't leave Chad's side.

"Chad…why can't you stop crying? It's gone now."

"I just, feel so alone now Darkmega…Anna…" Chad sat down on the ground, knees up to his stomach, head down, arms over his legs. "I feel like I've lost her all over again."

Darkmega quietly just moved besides Chad and sat beside him. "…It's been hard this whole time. Hasn't it?"

Chad didn't answer.

"I wish I could've done something for you. I wish we all could have. I wish we could've helped Roll too, give you something to smile about again and not made you suffer for three months."

"…I just want them back Darkmega. Anna to hold, Chaos…Chaos to give me answers."

Darkmega looked at him sympathetically. "I know the ghost child is making you like this. Let's get you home, you need to rest and pull yourself back together."

Chad nodded. He wanted to go home, back to the base.

Darkmega got up off the floor and on his com-link. "Dr Wily? Gonna have to bring Chad home. The ghost got him pretty badly. He needs time."

"It's still affecting him?" Dr Wily sounded surprised.

"Yeah."

"…Alright. Understood. I'll teleport him straight back to his room to rest and have Medi check on him in an hour's time."

* * *

Elie had walked past her house.

She didn't want to head inside. She needed a breather. She needed to avoid the others for now.

The fact her own sister never told anyone of her, and the fact Chad left it so long before coming to tell her…those hurt the most right now.

Anna was everything to her before Chad came along, before he started taking her interest.

She sighed to herself, knowing she just wanted to blame him right now. But she had to blame her own sister too. Anna almost acted as if she never had a sister back home. Those at the Hero Base never even knew she existed till now. She wanted to think that Anna was just too fixated on Chad, her new life and companions to even think that, afterall they parted on less-then-good terms.

She had to wonder if Anna hated her, all the way to her grave? Did she ever want to make up with her? Try to fix bridges? ...Would she have wanted to?

These thoughts continued to float in her head as she went around several of the roads, thinking to herself about the what-ifs and buts.

She found herself back at her house now, looking up the pathway to the front door.

That place didn't feel so welcoming at the moment.

"Hey Elie."

She quickly turned her head to the side.

Walking up the path towards her and her house, was a man about 21 years of age. He was fairly tall, decently built with fair skin, wearing a black leathery trench coat which was buttoned up at the front bar the top button, just barely showing a green shirt underneath, whilst the bottom of the trench was just barely showing he was wearing blue jeans. He was also wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, black shoes, medium black hair and in one gloved hand, carrying a bottle of red wine, whilst his other hand was in his coat pocket.

She quickly made her way other to him as he started to talk. "I just brought us a little bottle to help us relax. You said about having just got some bad news—" He stiffened a little as she embraced him, holding him close and resting her head on his chest. "—I'm guessing it was really bad then."

"Blue you have no idea what kind've day I just had. I'm just so glad you're here right now…" She didn't want to let go for the moment. Someone like him being here right now was what she needed to make those thoughts vanish.

He just let her for now, looking ahead at her home, letting her enjoy a minute of being there before saying "You know it's supposed to be getting cold tonight. Let's get inside before you catch something."

Elie agreed, and soon they were in the home, sitting on the couch.

The bottle of wine was not opened, the lights were left off. She just sat besides him whilst he left his coat on sitting back in the seat looking over at her, waiting for her to talk.

"…You know I had a sister."

Blue nodded. "Anna. She went to 'that' place with some of the mobians you said. Mom said about their arrival once to me if I vaguely recall when I was back home." He paused for a moment after saying that. "You just said 'had'."

"…She's been killed."

"I'm sorry."

Elie leaned back into the couch, sighing deeply to herself. "Her boyfriend came and told me, along with a few of the people from there."

"At least they did."

"She died three months ago."

Blue shook his head a little, sounding annoyed. "Well, guess grandpa and his 'pal' didn't feel like rushing it."

Elie looked over at him. "No. They didn't know I existed. Anna and Chad, the boyfriend, never told them."

"…" Blue lifted his arm up closest to her, and she leaned on him as he placed it around her. "Maybe Anna thought they would know somehow."

"Maybe…I hope she did…That she didn't just—" She tensed up.

"No. I doubt she forgot she had a sister. She probably was still mad when she got there and left it as an issue between you two without thinking of telling them. So, will there be any…you know…"

Elie shook her head. "There was barely anything left. Chad saw it happen and tried to stop her killer but he couldn't."

"He wanted to avenge her. Where is he now?"

"Hopefully back at that place and off of this planet. He wanted me to come with him and his friends."

"That's odd. Why?"

"Because of some…thing about a Trigon or something I don't know. I just snapped the moment Chad said it was three months. I was focused on him and the fact he failed to keep my sister safe."

There was a knock on the door.

"I'll tell him to go away." Blue was guessing who it was, gently getting Elie to move off of him and to wait as he got off the couch and headed to the front door, opening it.

Standing there was Jak, with Daxter on his shoulder and beside him Samus. "…Oh. Hey there guy, is Elie Hael home? We kinda want to chat with her."

Blue looked right at Samus, who nodded at him. "Blue Light."

"Samus Aran. Been a year and a little bit."

"You paid me enough to keep out of your business and cover your tracks on leaving ACDC. Good to see you're doing okay."

Jak looked over to the bounty hunter. "Hold it. Blue 'Light', as in related to Dr Light?"

"And if you don't want me going hostile that information remains with you. I'll even conclude your debt to be fulfilled now in return." Samus eyed them both.

Daxter agreed to that, nodding quickly as his eyes looked at her arm cannon, which was slightly pointed at him and his friend. "Got it, no Light here! Understood!"

"Mind if we see her then?" Samus focused back to Blue now.

"She's grieving at the moment. I take it it's urgent?"

Samus nodded. "Wouldn't bother people at this time otherwise."

Blue stepped back and motioned them to come in. "Elie. Samus and some…kind of elf guy and his pet are here to see you."

"The name's Jak, this is my pal Daxter. Sabek will be here soon. His just stopped back at his place to gather a few items to, um, try to convince her to come with us." Jak explained as he and the bounty hunter entered the house.

"Uh huh." Blue closed the door and turned the hallway light on, heading to the living room. "Just a heads up, she won't be anytime soon."

As Blue left their sight Daxter quickly said to Jak and Samus. "What's with the sunglasses? Doesn't he know the time of day or something?"

"He has his reasons." Samus replied as she went and entered the living room.

"Jak?"

Jak just shrugged, before he followed suit.

Elie straightened herself up as they entered and Blue switched the lights on in the room. She made sure to suppress her anger at the moment before focusing on the arrivals. "I heard what you said in the hallway. Sabek is coming to try and convince me to leave."

"Yes." Samus responded with. "It's in everyone's best interest."

"Not mine. My sister's murderer is there and so is the boyfriend that neglected some important information to your 'doctors'."

"That was unfortunate and a bad mistake on his part as well as Annas, but we're concerned about your safety now." She calmly explained. "The doctors themselves will no doubt apologise and offer you the best support they can."

"It won't bring Anna back. And this doesn't cover the fact her killer is in there."

"Hey we all hate the dark soul of Richard Wily okay miss? He helped give us the boot off Earth X when Darkmega was nutters and worked with Unicron. We all would like a turn in kicking his ass if we had a way of actually beating him." Daxter pointed out to her.

Blue crossed his arms on hearing the name. "Richard Wily…so they did keep the dark soul over his light self in the end. I knew about Darkmega being created, but to not only create a dark soul of a Wily but to keep him as well, I know they're moronic at times but that was just plain dumb."

"So that's who killed Anna…" Elie finally had a name for the murderer.

"He's not the focus right now Elie, you are. We really want to make sure you're safe." Jak motioned at the house. "It's not safe here, especially with Sabek saying about Angelus and Trigon."

"I can easily keep her safe." Blue responded with.

"You could, and I believe that. But there's something bigger going on that you alone might not be enough." Samus' eyes were locked with his. "Sabek is sure Elie won't be safe here at all."

Blue stared back at her, before turning his attention to Elie. "It'll be your call in the end."

"I'd very much prefer to stay here with you on Mobius than go off-world."

"You know the other worlds aren't that bad right? Some have bad air pollution, they can stink and there are some proper freaks out there, three boobed cat ladies and the such, but it's a fun ride to escape from home!" Daxter argued.

Jak briefly glanced over at his friend. "Three boobed—"

"I watch porn too ya know. Still Dumauris on the inside man, I have needs and the net is free in the base."

The blonde elf could only give a brief look of disgust before talking to Elie again. "He is correct, in a way. It's not terrible to leave home. It opens all kinds of new ideas and let's you see new places."

"My sister was killed by leaving this world." Elie bluntly answered with, glaring at Jak and Daxter.

"And you could still get killed by staying here, what's the difference woman? Your sister could've died anywhere!" Daxter folded his arms now, getting a little annoyed with Elie…clearly lacking tact and regards to what people are feeling, something Jak had now fully acknowledged by quickly slapping his hand around his friends mouth and telling him "Will you just be quiet for a moment!"

Blue shrugged slightly on hearing it though. "That's a fair point to travelling off world. Maybe Elie will some day, but why should she come to your base when she could go anywhere else in the Universe? You guys aren't exactly the most efficient at keeping yourselves safe and protecting your location. I recall the heartless managed to drive you guys out, yet I could keep a small town secure from them for a majority of a year before I noticed they had backed off and focused elsewhere and took the chance to evacuate the place."

Samus gave a sigh, not sure how to answer that.

Jak moved his hand away from Daxter now, and motioned at him to get off his shoulder for a moment whilst he looked at Blue and Elie. "Look, back then? We've weren't ready to defend ourselves. To be honest I think we were seriously slacking because Earth X got peaceful as the docs built the base and we were all still introducing ourselves to one another. We just played around in the training room, mock battles, avoiding using the hologram rooms and if we did, it was only for leisure. But now we've been fighting, we've been working together. We train for real against one another, we use what we can to win. We've had to stop being lazy. Unicron showed us that, Earth V's civil war made that more so clear to us."

There was now another knock on the door. "It's probably Sabek." Elie decided to go and answer it.

Blue meanwhile had listened to what Jak said. "So you guys have stopped slacking…Well, at least things are finally being done around there. When I saw the place I thought it was doomed from the start, especially as Wily and his family got mixed into it—"

"HELP!"

That made them all quickly rush out of the living room, to find Elie holding the sides of the blade of darkness that was trying to come down on her head…as a purple shirt wearing version of Chad was standing at the door, grinning madly. "Come on Elie let me just leave a sign for Chad! He lost one Hael, why not another?!"

Jak quickly moved past Elie and in one mighty punch, socked the twisted version of Chad right in the chest, causing him to stumble out of the door before Jak followed up and leaping into the air and kicking the dark soul right in the face as he came down before the evil Chad had time to focus.

"Angelus! The dark soul that escaped the base!" Samus barged past Elie aiming her arm cannon firing several energy shots at the dark soul who managed to block a few of them with his sword, but some struck him before he was met with Jak's energy rifle which he had pulled out, aimed and fired at point blank, the red energy blast knocking him flying into the street.

Blue had meanwhile focused on Elie, having grabbed her as she stumbled back the moment the sword had been dropped by Angelus. "Elie!"

She was quick to come around from the surprise attack. "I'm okay I'm okay! Just shocked that's all." She made sure to stand on her own two feet now instead of leaning back on Blue. "You don't expect to open the door to someone you think you know ready to swing his blade at you. I'm going to grab my weapons."

Outside Samus and Jak got in the street with Angelus and were barraging him with their guns. Samus was firing missiles at the dark soul, Jak quickly put a small cylinder attachment to his rifle which caused it to fire numerous small yellow bolts of energy instead of a wide red blast. Angelus was bobbing and weaving between the shots and returned the favour by using a chaos beam, striking Jak and winding him.

He aimed for Samus who simply rolled up into her morph ball form, the energy beam flowing past over where she had stood before standing back up and firing a super missile, getting a direct hit causing Angelus to curse as he fell to the ground, his clothing damaged. "You didn't stay away from our business for long did you?"

Angelus pulled himself up, looking like a mad man. "Of course not! I want to kill you all and my light self! I thought the best way to lure him to me was by taking out the only connection remaining to dear sweet Anna, her older sister! I didn't expect you guys!"

"We have business with Elie Hael. Since you're here that confirms her need to come to the Hero Base." Samus aimed her arm cannon as she started to prepare a charged shot. "Better terminate you now then."

Angelus clicked his fingers and his version of the blade of darkness returned to him before he rushed towards Samus yelling "CHAOS CONTROL!"

In a flash of red he was gone from her view.

And was heard yelling out in surprise as Jak had dropkicked him the moment he appeared behind Samus to try and stab her in the back. As he stumbled away from the blow he was greeted by the charge shot of Samus being fired in his direction, striking him square in the stomach and exploding on impact.

As he was flung down the road, Jak went over to Samus, getting his gun ready again. "This guy doesn't seem that strong and his a little slow on the movements."

Angelus was now running towards them and upon getting close, a punch from Jak in the side of his face followed by Samus moving behind him and blasting him away with another super missile got rid of him for a few seconds. "You're right Jak. Chad is normally faster then this. Maybe the dark soul is just weaker overall?"

"Darkmega seems to be capable though, and let's not go there with the dark soul of Richard."

They saw him using Chaos Control, appearing a few feet away before readying his sword once again. "This time I'll kill you both!"

A wave of bright yellow energy bullets repeatedly struck his body that had come from between Samus and Jak.

Elie had walked up between them, holding two mechanical tonfas at the ready, the tips of aimed at the dark soul showing they were gun barrels, stream coming off them as they cooled after she had stopped firing. "You won't catch me off guard like that again asshole. You're not leaving here alive."

Angelus was still standing, holding the blade of the darkness and grinning evilly. He was clearly hurt, but not enough to put him off. "I'm not going to be taken down by any of you this day! I'll kill you and begin my reign of terror on this planet and beyond!"

"Yeah no, I don't think so."

Elie, Jak and Samus all saw Blue walk by them, stopping a few feet ahead, looking straight at Angelus.

"So you're the threat Sabek warned the others about? Angelus right?"

"And what's a nobody like you want?" Angelus wasn't impressed with Blue now joining in.

"Simple." Blue moved his hand to his sunglasses, removing them and placing them in his coat's pocket…opening his eyes, showing his left eye was green, whilst the right was clearly meant to look humanoid, but the light blue colouring and the faint outline of lines of machine plating of the eye revealed otherwise, as he then flung his coat off.

It revealed that while he was wearing a long sleeve green shirt that covered his left arm, his right, the green sleeve had long since been detached from the shirt, thanks to his cybernetic arm that was pulsating slightly as neon blue veins ran up and down it, along with numerous small circle holes in his shoulder, emitting small amounts of neon blue streams escaping them, the veins clearly went from there up the back of his neck, which was now seen thanks to the removal of the coat to be also machine based.

"Slash sword! Activate!" Blue raised his human arm up into the air, hand open.

Materializing in his hand, was a blade with one handed silver crafted blade, with a brown leather-bound hilt and a light blue scarf with Hub's symbol wrapped at the connecting point of the handle and the sword segment. He quickly closed his hand around the handle and readied himself as Angelus had stopped waiting, rushing towards him yelling "CHAOS CONTROL!"

The red beam fired, but Blue simply sidestepped it before swinging his blade to block the incoming blade of darkness, socking Angelus solid in the stomach with his machine arm, using the blunt side of his sword, which was now available with the weakened grip angelus had on his blade of darkness, to sock the dark soul across the head before his machine hand seemed to transform into an arm cannon like Rock's aiming at Angelus and blasting him away with the yellow light of an instant charged shot.

Angelus was flying back, yelling out in pain and slamming, spiralling across the ground before managing to stop himself, quickly looking towards Blue who had made the arm cannon change back into his hand readying his sword again, his blue eye now glowing. He remained stoic as the dark soul lunged towards him once again.

One strike across the face, two in the stomach and then Blue's sword plunging into his abdomen before it was pulled out, letting the purple blood flow to the floor as the dark soul stumbled back…just to find Blue's machine arm come forward, plunging into the wound and lifting him momentarily off the ground slowly being covered by the unusual liquid leaving Angelus.

Angelus could barely just grab the arm, snarling down at Blue before noticing a feeling of warmth quickly building up inside his stomach. "Y-you-!"

"I'm here to make sure you regret targeting Elie."

With that a massive blast of yellow energy exploded out of the back of Angelus as he screamed in sheer agony before the force of the energy launched him off the arm, flying in the arc high in the air as the charged shot Blue had prepared died off, coming down and slamming into the road in the far distance with a sickening crunching thud.

He looked to his arm, as brief spurts of steam vented out of the holes of it before he turned and focused on the others.

Elie lowered her weapons, smiling sweetly at him. "So that means I owe you a little bit huh?"

"Just repaying you. Nothing worth owing me for."

"Well, maybe I can at least treat you to something."

There were rapid footsteps coming behind her and the others. Looking over, they all spotted Sabek, who looked like he had just ran a mile. "Have I just missed something? I saw the energy blast down the road and rushed as quick as I could."

Daxter spoke up, who was revealed to be standing at the steps leading up to Elie's front door. "Ho boy did ya! That Blue fella just beat the ass off of Angelus and sent him packing with a new hole!"

Jak glanced over to where Angelus had landed…and noticed he was gone. "Hasn't kept him down though."

Samus looked over and cursed a little, activating her scanner visor. "Bastard can't take a hint, hold on I'll see if I can track him." She started to walk over to where he had hit the floor to find blood marks.

Sabek seemed surprised. "H-hold on, Blue managed to take down Angelus?"

"You know Blue?" Jak asked.

"We've met."

"Well he was already a little slow and sluggish, Blue just put him down."

"…That can't have been Angelus."

"Well it was a dark soul, and it looked like Chad. We put two and two together and he confirmed it." Daxter walked over to join them.

"No I mean, the Angelus I know of…I mean no offense to you Blue, but I know you are not capable of defeating Angelus. Very few people are. His combat skills are advanced and his killed thousands of fighters who tried to stop him. If that was really him…Elie would be dead, as would all of you."

"So, what? It was a fake?" Elie wondered.

"I don't know. But I know it isn't safe here. You'll be safer at the Hero Base. We all would be safer there."

"Sabek…" Elie gave a sigh, before the man walked over to her and handed her two datapads. "What the?"

"Read them. One is on Trigon and what he could do. The other is on…well, your family. They will convince you why you need to go."

Elie stepped away from them all and started to look at the datapads, one at a time, whilst Samus was coming back to the group turning off her scanner. "Minimal trace. The bastard must've teleported away."

Sabek was looking over to where Samus came from, clearly thinking right now whilst Blue went over to Elie and was now looking at the datapads too, as she seemed surprised about what she was reading on one of them.

"Well at least he's gone for the moment, we can't complain and can count this as a victory to us, right?" Daxter seemed happy enough with it.

"You didn't do anything but watch. Angelus has got away and will probably be more ready next time." Jak looked down at his friend.

"Nice shooting by the way Jak. I'm glad you didn't head back to the base. Would've struggled without you." Samus gave him a brief thumbs up.

"All in the same boat Samus."

Elie finally stopped looking at the datapads, looking to Blue. "…What do you think?"

Blue gave a heavy sigh, closing his eyes for a moment before focusing on her. "If this information is correct on your family, you might be tied to something you can't escape. Though it would seem logical it should all point to Anna being the one, without her it seems to be passed on to you."

"…Should I go with them?"

"If you do, I'll come too. I may have problems there but I can't leave you like this. You helped me. I can help you back."

"And this Trigon one? If the dates match up…"

"Elie. One step at a time. So what will you do?"

"…" Elie shut off the datapads and walked back over to Sabek and those of the Hero Base, Blue following suit. "With this, information, I have decided to come with you guys to the base that you currently reside in. Blue here will come with me."

"Don't be so formal about it lady. We're all gonna be great pals there okay?" Daxter was smiling at her, whilst she looked annoyed at him. "What? Being honest here. Anna loved the place."

"Ignore him. So what was on those datapads?" Jak wondered.

Elie locked eyes with Sabek for a moment, before answering. "One of them says that…I carry the family blood of Anna."

"Your sister? Well duh I mean-" Daxter quickly received a frown off his friend. "Okay okay, shutting up."

"No. Anna as in the woman who fell in love with Primus. I carry the blood of one of the five families of destiny. Bloods that always gather when great evil begins to appear."

"Chad carries Primus, you carry Anna…No doubt the other three will soon show themselves." Sabek was given back his datapads. "Not often two of the family bloods simply meet without something happening on a wide scale. Especially the bloods of Primus and Anna. The last major occurrence was in the time of Murriden Beakstead, 2nd leader of SCI. He carried Primus blood and had three close colleagues as well as a lover who carried the other four family bloodlines. They discovered the worlds that are within King Mickey's domain and combated the army of Heartless that was posed to flood all those worlds and beyond."

"I don't HAVE to…with him? Right? Chad being that blood and me—"

Sabek was quick to pick up on what Elie was saying "Oh good heavens no. Murriden was married to someone of Thor's blood. It doesn't have to end up with two bloods together either. All you probably find yourself doing is working closely with Chad and others. I know you hate the man, but you know you can't solely blame him for what's happened."

Elie gave a nod after a few seconds. She knew he was right on that. Anna was to blame heavily as well. Blue meanwhile spoke to them all. "For now I suggest those of the base head back and tell my family and Wily's we're on our way soon. Gonna need to get some stuff together and all…Sabek you coming?"

Sabek looked surprised at that. "Wait me?"

"You know of information on the families. It'll be smart if you came along as well."

"Well I never planned for myself to leave here anytime soon…"

"Treat it as a condition for Elie to go to the base. You need to tag along if you're so sure she'll be safe there and wanted to convince her."

"Ah…I see…well I suppose seeing where Chad has been would be interesting…"

* * *

The dark soul of Chad was stumbling around.

He was keeping to the alleyways of Station Square. His blood dribbling out of his wound on his chest. The recover chips healed a majority of it but didn't seal it up.

He had lost a lot of blood.

He leaned on a nearby wall, sitting down against it whilst looking over at the street lights close by. No one was around. He was thankful for that. "Fucking…bastard. He did some heavy damage there."

'Yeah. Seemed like you can't handle what we we're suppose to be'

He heard that voice in his head. "Great, now MY consciousness is talking to me like my light self…"

'I'm not your consciousness. I'm more…a waiting predator. You got us out of Chad. That mess of programming was annoying to try and work around but you…hm, you're much easier to access.'

The dark soul tensed up, his eyes darting around trying to see if this voice was coming from elsewhere. "What…what are you!?"

'I'm the…add on, that Chad created back home. I'm like you, in so many ways. But I was sleeping, trapped away in the depths of the mind of that boy.'

Angelus forced himself to stand up, breathing faster and faster, a sense of fear rapidly growing.

'Well, I say I'm like you but I'm more akin to what that Lucy girl used…what Richard is. You're just a minor version of what I am. I was born of chaotic energy. You're…weak. Pathetic even. That whole fight was a joke you know. You lost to a couple of mooks out of that worthless base as well as some cyborg reject of the Light family.'

"Where are you!?"

'Heheheh. I'm inside. Slowly making my way to the right spot. The sweet spot. You can close your eyes and look back at your very, VERY, brief life if you want. Protip? It won't be a great flashback.'

"Who, who are you?!"

'Me?...Well…'

Everything suddenly went blurry, as the dark soul was losing control of its body. It felt itself begin to lose all feeling, before suddenly a hand grabbed the shoulder of it. It caused him quickly to look over to the side to see standing beside him another Chad. Brown eyes, brown hair, wearing a black shirt, black jacket and trousers…and grinning evilly with two distinct sharp fangs showing from his mouth.

"I'M Angelus."

There was silence from the alleyway.

Then out of its shadows into the street lights came the dark soul. It looked around, calm and relaxed, smiling a little as it smelled the air. "Ah. Mobius. Never knew why we was dragged here but hey, it has an assortment of snacks."

It then looked down at its still open wound in it's chest, placing its hand over it before looking at it's blood. "Hm, I recall a power with Chaos energy that can fix this. Better grab some new clothing as well, being drabbed in this is just reminding me of Chad."

He placed his hands in his pockets and started walking down the streets, his figure appearing in the street yellow lights between the shadows of the night. "After that get something, fresh, to eat. Then see if I track some like-minded allies and get to work."

* * *

Chad was sitting in his room. On his bed, in the dark.

It had been rough for him for the last several hours. He felt like everything was over. All he had was gone. That super child. It got to him hard. Dr Wily had visited him twice, Medi did so once and so did Darkmega.

Dr Wily told him they managed to get a few data nodes out of Unicron and it does seem like Lasermans task was complete. The child has passed on.

Chad was thankful for that. He was assuring himself that he'll never go near those freaky brats ever again. If he spots another dead kids body his legging it without looking back.

He looked to his door.

He knew he needed to get some food. His had nothing since this morning. He got himself off the bed and went over to the door, opened it, and headed out down to the food hall.

Failing to notice the brief flicker of a second shadow leaving his own that was on the wall of the corridor he was in and vanishing into the night.


	6. Mobius: Destiny Calls

"Are you sure the termination was complete Laserman within an hour of them intercepting the spirit?"

"I had made sure the body was entirely destroyed along with a majority of the ship itself. I can assure you of that."

"…Chad's prolonged reaction is disturbing me. Normally people who suffer only do so for around ten to thirty minutes at maximum."

"Under test protocols they did Albert. This was an outside encounter."

"Hmm. I think I'll get him in for a few tests, make sure everything is okay. We never tested it against Net Navi's so it may have damaged a piece of his programming."

"Alright. If you want to know his currently in one of the hologram rooms. Ruth is heading there with Shademan in tow."

"Good. Make sure Shademan is reminded that if she wants to be alone let her be alone. Any signs of her accessing the network?"

"…Twice. One was a minor attempt, looking into weather reports. The second she was trying to access Chad's profile information we have on him."

"Oh?"

"I weakened the password around it to allow her access. She used her hacking ability as expected. Fast results as standard. She was looking at the information he had told us, his likes and dislikes, where he's from and so on. I had scanned the information to make sure no mention of Roll was present."

"Good job…Any idea why she would?"

"An object was brought to her from Samus Aran. A gift from Chad. Ruth is unsure if it's meant for affection or friendship as she told Shademan Samus was distracted by Ridley's new menu…I take it you are going to go along with his food plan?"

"It's within the budget and will provide an alternative for people. His only given us a rough concept but Thomas and myself approved with little concern."

Dr Wily was sitting in the lab, speaking to Laserman who was on the main screen of the computer. The lights were on, along with the machinery of the place humming away as the old scientist was sitting back in his chair, holding his staff in one hand.

It was three days after the Mobius and Unicron Head incidents, two o'clock in the afternoon as the clock nearby on the wall showed. It was chucking it down outside the base, rain faintly being heard hammering on the ceiling.

"What of the newcomers?" Laserman now asked Wily.

"They'll be here soon. I've prepared the rooms for them and informed Medi of their due arrival. We've finally come to the agreement of what is to be in Elie's room specifically since she will be working here. We had to make some arrangements to what can go into storage too. The girl is moving everything out of the house so nothing valuable gets taken whilst she's gone since she doesn't know, and nor does this Sabek friend of hers, on how long she'll be off of mobius. One person certainly concerns Thomas though... the grandson."

"Another failure. If his going to cooperate it should be fine. Do not be hostile to him."

"Of course not. If I can tolerate Lan and Hub, Blue is not going to be a problem. Thomas already said he'll avoid any arguments and let his son handle things."

"Good. I'll return to my duties." Laserman disabled the call, leaving the old scientists in his thoughts for a time, before he found his grandson walking in with Nyu following. "Hey gramps. Mind teleporting me back to the Wily fortress? Got the data I needed."

Wily looked over to him, briefly glancing at Nyu. "She's going again?"

"She's great with tech actually. I left her to repair the code signalizer when she agreed to do it on one of the computers and she got that crap done faster than I could. With her and Keira around along with the original Robot Masters I should get several of our ideas complete—"

"Hold on the ORIGINAL? You re-activated them instead of using the copier robot creator?"

"Gramps that's 64 robots with individualism that can help me without shutting down from minor damage and acting like drones. I've only got 16 of them active at the moment but I plan on getting them all going."

"Ugh, fine fine. Just remember I agreed with the Galactic Federation that those who do not belong to either myself or Light were not to be reactivated without consent of the said Federation. Shinra Federation still upholds this, and I don't wanna hear any calls of complaints from Cossack if he visits and spots his robots working again."

"Why didn't you just return them to their owners if it was that much of a bother that you had to chuck them in storage?"

Wily frowned "I hacked them remember? The federation regards them as maverick machines now and refuses to see it otherwise. Those companies washed their hands in the affair and Cossack doesn't want to be lumped with me."

"Well I'll try to keep them out of obvious sight then." Then as Dr Wily turned to the computer to ready to teleport his grandson and his friend away "So anything from those data nodes of Unicron?"

The scientist looked over to his grandson, sighing a little before continuing to type. "Seems like they have the same problem as the information we got out of Darkmega's arm. Reversed energy readings. Because it's not in an adaptable piece this time, we can't adjust our computers to handle the nodes. Yuichiro is going to keep trying for now. Thomas wants to ask Robotnik to see if the federation has had any luck but I don't want them getting suspicious that we might have taken something."

"And finally before I leave, what did you exactly extract from the information Darkmega had? You never told me—" before a blue light covered Dr Richard and Nyu, and both were gone.

Dr Wily decided to turn off his com-link for a little while. He knows his grandson will try for him for a few minutes before leaving the matter alone. He focused back on the computer, going through several files before finding one labelled ' _D-M Unicron Info'_

God getting through that was an eye opener. Unicron's information proved there was parallel worlds, but not just anywhere…within the realm known as Chaotic Space. And something had happened to those parallels. Some disaster they've yet to encounter. There were numerous images as well. Especially those of Primus, his companions…there were even those of Zuo Ci, Lu Bu, Sephiroth…and in one, the one he had on screen which showed Chad within the mind of Unicron, looking up at the camera that caught the image, clearly in the middle of the room…and just visible behind Chad, was Zuo Ci.

Aiming his hand towards Chad's back, energy visibly charging in his hand.

The image is recorded as being created over 3 million years ago.

* * *

Chemical Plant Zone.

Oh yeah did Chad enjoy this version of the place. The sliding on pipes, the length of the pathways, the entire complex being nothing more than miles long of metal, platforms and badniks.

Not the actual chemical plant zone, that place was a death trap. This version was in the hologram room. It meant that the water was non-toxic, non-lethal AND he programmed it so it would allow him to breath freely and is treated like it's just air, so as if he was on dry land. No need to panic about the water if it's no more of a threat to you.

He had himself in his mobian form, blade of darkness in hand, letting it just ever so slightly scrape on the ground as he approached several badniks known as egg pawns, spinning through the air…

And landed past them as they fell into fragments into the purple water below.

He soon found himself running upwards, higher and higher on a blue metallic slope, soon arriving at the peak, with a booster close by he was about to use…but made himself come to a stop, lowering his blade and looking over the place.

He had a great view of the fumes coming out of the chimneys, the lights flickering across the place, the cities beyond it and the clouded night sky…

'Another Thomas Light made us…I wonder why we came to Mobius then?'

It was his conscious.

"I don't know. I wish I knew. If we were created then that means what Chaos said is a lie, right?"

'Possibly. But our design, the organic parts of us came from someone didn't they? This Thomas might've worked for him.'

Chad looked at himself for a moment, before cursing. "Damn it. Why was I made? What purpose do I have?"

'Everyone asks themselves that once in a while you know."

"But I was created by hand."

'…Well sometimes the sexual partners USE their hands—'

"Not. Funny."

'We don't have the answer. We can't let ourselves worry about it. We have other things to be concerned about.'

"Not worry about being created instead of being born? Not worry about being a possible creation to become a secret weapon or a tool to be used? I've only just been thinking it over and noticed I have so little memories of being young…then comes the question of my age. Am I really 17? Am I just programmed to think that?"

Chad got distracted now. He heard footsteps coming up the slope he had just done himself. Pretty fast ones too.

He turned to see just as the person arrived next to him, and to his stunned surprised it was Ruth, who came to a stop, turned to him and gave him a smile and a wave. "Hi Chad! I can see why running around can be a fun experience!"

"…" Chad looked behind her, then back to her. She seemed to be sweating a bit. "You ran? From what point?"

"The entrance to the hologram room. I asked the computer to adjust my speed to that of yours and to trigger a trail line for me to follow to find you in this maze of factories."

"You can do that?" Chad was certainly surprised.

"Of course. Net Navi remember? So what's been going on lately? Since our bar meeting we haven't spoke. You've been keeping to yourself."

Chad sighed and turned back to the view, putting his sword on the ground before folding his arms, with Ruth walking over and standing beside him. "It's been rough lately that's all. Had to find a friend on Mobius, got pulled into going off to see Unicron's head—A machine I destroyed—and met a ghost that…brought back some bad memories. They've been making me think about things."

"Like what?" Ruth moved a little closer, now standing besides him looking out to the view he was focused on before.

"…Myself. I…Ruth, I didn't know I was even a Navi before you, tried to…hack? Inspect? Interference with me I dunno how to put it. I was still a mobian, as far as I knew. I never had any hint of being one before. All I knew was that I lived on mobius, Anna was my love interest and Sonic and his friends became my own friends over time."

"So that's why you reacted the way you did…I'm still sorry for that."

"It's fine Ruth. I'm just reflecting on things now with that bombshell. It just feels like things have been one after the other recently." He folded his arms thinking on that. "Well I guess it's been, I mean I know I had three months between the loss of Anna and finding this out whilst looking after—" He stopped, knowing what he was about to say.

"Looking after what?"

"…Richard. I had to look after him by keeping watch over the bastard."

"Oh, him. The one that's locked up." Chad looked a little surprised towards her. "I read up a little on him on the network. He's a prisoner. Tried to cause trouble those months ago and you brought him in. The dark soul to Dr Richard."

"You haven't been on the network, right?" Chad was worried now.

"I managed to access a few things. Nothing concerning or into too much detail. I was just curious and well, with my hacking tools here—" motioning at her antennas "-it isn't that hard."

"Well, what else did you read up on?"

"Anything related to your profile really." Ruth quickly knew how that sounded. "Not that I wanted anything, I just chose you as my starting point on accessing the databanks."

"…Huh. Anything interesting on my profile? I never really look at it." Chad was genuinely curious. He knew the docs kept tabs on everyone in the place and put in information. Heck he once checked on Medi's profile shortly after he first met her a few years ago before Anna wanted to know why.

"Well it had you WERE Mobian. Now it's corrected as 'Hu-Navi Hybrid', you're 17, combat style is one handed sword mixed with mobian combat, battlechips and energy usage. Relationship status is single, family not known, creator is Dr Thomas Light with a question mark added at the end, assuming that means they don't know….Then it goes into details about your days on mobius what you told them, the more recent things like Unicron and defeating Richard, going to see him frequently every week and training in the hologram room against…him?"

Chad stared at her for a moment. "Wow that's…more detail than I expected."

"To be fair I, I kinda did track deeper into information about you and…may have stuck my nose into places that I shouldn't." Ruth felt a little embarrassed. "I just got too interested."

"Well at least someone here has interest in me, huh?" Chad chuckled a little. "Though perhaps next time you could ask me some of the questions."

"Okay. Where and when?"

"Oh…" Chad rubbed the back of his head a little, showing he clearly didn't expect that question. "Well, maybe we could talk at the bar. Go for a drink together?"

Ruth tilted her head slightly, showing she was thinking about it for a moment before looking at Chad. "Can't we go elsewhere? I haven't seen this world yet and I'm suppose to be hanging around my guardian."

"You know about that huh?"

"The parts I looked into. Still I don't mind. You're a nice guy from what I gathered. And, well…" She blushed slightly. "That gift of yours was nice."

"Friends give eachother gifts now and then Ruth. I'd like to think we can be close friends." Chad hopped a little on his feet. He wanted to get moving again. Being in his mobian form always made him feel more twitchy then when he's human, turning away from Ruth before she looked over at him, her face showing happiness at his response. "So if you can follow at my pace, wanna run around whilst I think of where we can go?"

"I'd love to!"

With that Chad shot off down the pathway with Ruth readying herself before doing the same.

* * *

Dr Richard placed a small metal panel in its place, activating his arm buster and firing out of it a small, blue flame to fuse the part in place, humming to himself the music 'mechanical resonance'. He normally would have it playing in the Wily fortress. But one of his two companions from the base had complained dur to her sensitive hearing and being unable to focus. His other companion didn't seem to mind it, heck he was sure she was enjoying the other's frustrated sighs.

He disabled his buster, turning it back into a normal hand before stepping back.

There were in the central room of the Wily Fortress, the dark purple interior lit up by a dozen white lights beaming off the ceiling from dozens of meters up as well as lights that were placed around the middle of the walls, circling around to show whatever was the main focus of Wily in all its glory.

Well, now Dr Richard's, since it was his idea in the first place. But the main room here was built for Wily to show off his old menacing machines, before Rock trounced them in some way or form. Richard had to wonder how annoying it must've been for his gramps to keep fixing up the damage Rock did when he came to visit each time, and how many times Dr Wily reworked the place changing its appearance.

When he was young, he was sure there was a button that just transformed the place into a death trap. Nowadays his aware there isn't a single button, but a slew of them to be activated in order to trigger the defences.

Before him now though, was a gateway. Two giant dark metal rings, both directly connected which had a small stairway and platform leading to them, connected to a large computer that held weeks upon weeks of following the blueprints saved in his mind to accomplish. The inner ring would turn to expend the energy needed to create what this was all made for.

A gateway, a dimensional gateway.

…Well that was the plan anyway. Dr Richard had added two compartments to the computer that could hold…something. The blueprints he had in his mind said it was 'additional energy'. One type could allow them to flow through time and other dimensions, another could allow them to see chaotic space and the times 'lost' as the blueprint notes…and both? All the blueprints record that as is 'The way beyond.'

Sometimes he wonders to himself if he did completely download the information off the space station system before that Gaster person erased it after getting himself a copy.

Right now the device was not fully completed. The computer was about 75% done. Richard had just sealed up one of the connection points to the rings after a brief connection check showed some of the wiring was not responding.

There was scaffolding in place on one side of the rings, and up on it was Nyu, who was checking up on the machinery within the outer ring, having been told what to do by Dr Richard. He was annoyed that she couldn't read, all the letters were a jumble to her as far as he could make out what she meant, but she perfectly understood what he said to her about, showing that she had a fantastic ability with technology.

Every hour she was going strength to strength with what she could do. In that jumbled mind was someone who could match him, his gramps or the other person working here with them.

Down on the ground close to the same side of the ring, checking that lower segment was Keira, who was looking over the datapad she had and then what was before her. She hated him humming. She only seemed to enjoy the sound of the machinery itself and the creaking of it all when she was working rather than music, or people chatting.

Or coughing.

Sneezing.

Tapping on the machinery.

Dropping tools.

She wants to be fully focused on the task and all the noises it makes. Dr Richard soon walked over to her. "Keira? How's it looking?"

"The wiring and chipboards are in the correct locations and it SHOULD contain the power needed to run the system-" She looked at the datapad again. "—but I think we need to test run it. Run the inner ring, the projector, and see if it turns correctly. If that's going fine we'll be alright with the outer ring."

"Nyu." Nyu looked down from the scaffolding shaking her head. "Nyu!"

"I'm guessing she says it's a bad idea." Dr Richard looked to Keira. "Maybe the system isn't stable enough in her eyes?"

"..." Keira walked over to a small laptop they had set up close by the large computer and sat down before it, motioning Richard to come over and started typing on it whilst quietly saying to him. "No offense to her but I think we know what we're doing? I mean she's only just getting herself into all this."

Richard sighed a little. "I know I know, but I think we should accept her warning for now."

"I'll put it in a low power setting. Nothing should blow then besides one or two minor wires, but even then the safety lockdown should trigger."

Nyu looked concerned as Richard walked back to the gateway and looked up at her, shrugging a little. "It'll be okay Nyu. We won't go full blast alright?"

"Nyu…"

Richard then thought of something to give Keira space. "Why don't you come with me for a while? We could see if there's anything else we can add to the ever-growing list of projects."

Nyu seemed to like that idea as she slowly got herself down from the scaffolding and started to follow him as he headed down one of the nearby corridors.

As they ventured the gloomy looking fortress Dr Richard got on his com-link. "Quickman, Flashman please head to the central room to provide Keira with assistance."

Flashman responded. "On it. Elecman will continue to repair the 3rd wave of robots. Should be online in three days."

"Sounds good. The more the merrier."

As he put down the com-link, he and Nyu found themselves arriving at one of the lifts of the fortress. Stepping in with the pink haired girl following he looked to her. "I'll let you pick our destination. This place is filled with crap so whatever floor we pick could have something."

Nyu pressed the highest number there was, 20. The lift took a little while but on arrival, this floor was slightly more colourful, brighter than the others. It was painted a lighter purple, with a yellow line across the middle of the wall going by the labelled metal doors. This was the only other floor with a central room that was above the primary one. This one being a simple lounge like area with a few lounge leathery black chairs and plants, numerous flowers of different types and sorts that were still alive thanks to the automated system Wily had in place to take care of them.

Dr Richard quickly recognized this floor. "Ah, personal rooms. Nothing here for us."

"Nyu?" Nyu didn't seem to agree to this notion as she walked past him heading to one of the doors branded in gold lettering 'Albert Wily'.

"Can you read that?"

She shook her head.

"Lucky guess then…well that's grandfathers' old room. I doubt I can unlock that." The hu-navi made his way over to the door whilst Nyu moved aside, and shortly away from him. "Although, I think I could guess the password. The door used to be connected to the network. There should be a terminal in the main room on this floor we could use to access it—where'd you go?" He soon noticed she was gone, having gone down a few doors to another door, with each door she was pushing against them to see if they were unlocked.

One was, as she soon found, motioning him over.

Boy he wished she didn't find it. As he came over he knew exactly what room was unlocked. His.

Nyu had already entered. Inside, the place was a mess.

The bed was okay, dusty thanks to time. The computer looked old and had been broken, smashed apart by the looks of it. There were several posters on the walls of the painted blue room, ripped apart, vaguely showing they were actually blueprints to something. The cupboard was wide open, filled with an assortment of men's clothing…most had been torn up. The grey painted bedside drawer was scratched and damaged, with a broken rounded lamp on top of it. The floor was littered with small toys…models, robot ones. A lot of them broken apart but it was clear they were based on the robot masters.

Nyu just stared into the room before noticing Richard was behind her and stepped into the place. "…It's strange being back here. Years of being pulled away…"

"Nyu?"

"This is my room Nyu." He walked over to his computer, looking at it carefully. "It was my room. When I was, 'replaced' it's clear my dark self was given this room."

She looked confused at him, which made him recall that of course, she wouldn't know about that. "Long story short? Grandfather used me in a test, got a replacement, and I got locked away after a second experiment. Made me what I am."

She looked at him with sympathy, before walking over to his bedside drawer noticing the bottom drawer had been left open.

"Listen we should head back out. Maybe one of the other floors might have something good—"

"Nyu." She had grabbed a photo frame out of the drawer, rubbing the dust away with her hand…

To find it was a picture of Albert in the middle, Regal to his left, to his right was a man wearing a yellow and brown patterned army jacket with a furry neckline, having golden dog tags and black hair, next to him was a woman wearing a long black leather coat, having long brown hair tied to the side as a ponytail, brown eyes and wearing a dark red top. In front of the latter two was a young girl, with long blonde her and green eyes, carrying a brown teddy bear with a red heart on it's chest, she was wearing a pink top and a long pink skirt. In front of Albert and Regal was a slightly older boy, brown hair and eyes, wearing a dark blue shirt and black jogging trousers.

Behind Albert were two robots. One was Forte, who seemed annoyed being in the picture, whilst the other, Zero, seem as happy as the others to be there.

They were all standing in front of a different looking, but clearly still is, Wily fortress.

Whilst Nyu was staring at it, Richard came over and spotted the picture…his expression went to one of annoyance at being here to sadness. "A family photo…One of the two we ever bothered with…" He gently grabbed the photo's frame from Nyu and sat down on the bed.

Nyu moved back a little before joining him, looking at it again pointing to the boy. "Nyu?"

"That's me, yeah. A little pudgy back then due to not doing much. Gramps was always annoyed when I raided the fridge at night. I always felt peckish and well, Yuriko used to bring round such lovely foodstuff and we'd have plenty leftover."

Nyu looked confused at the name he mentioned.

"Yuriko is—" He pointed to the woman in the black coat. "There. Yuriko Wily…well Yuriko Ozono. She took back her actual last name after some, problems occurred with our family. She's my aunt. Adopted. All of us are adopted by Albert, besides the robot and reploid of course, Forte-" pointing to him "—and Zero." Then pointing to the blond haired one.

Nyu pointed at the man with black hair.

"That's Barrel. Barrel Wily. My uncle. Still in the family though his kept his distance since those problems happened. Military guy, kept himself busy in the army and was the reason for the rare family photos. Would've had a niece and nephew off him but…something horrible happened. It would've led to him being separated from our family entirely but gramps kept him in touch, determined not to let him suffer alone for his loss."

He sat back a little. "Well at least that's the last I know about Barrel and Yuriko. That was years ago so I don't know if gramps even contacts them anymore. We don't call Zero either but he's the sort that goes by 'don't call me, I'll call you.'"

Nyu glanced over Regal and Albert, obviously knowing who they were by recognizing their faces but soon was looking at the little girl, pointing to her. "Nyu?"

"…" Dr Richard sat forward, staring at the photo. "She was the focus point of the problems Nyu."

There was a moment of silence, before Richard explained to her as he could see that she was stuck between wanting to know and not being sure if she should pry on such information. "She was my adopted sister. You had gramps, Regal who was named my and her father, Yuriko was our aunt who looked after her at her apartment in Dentown whilst I lived here in the fortress, and Barrel was our uncle. This was…Ruth Bullen. The last name was different as gramps respected her mother and let her keep her mother's last name despite the bitch not wanting her daughter."

Nyu pointed to him in the photo.

"…Oh right. My last name was Stewart before I was adopted into the Wily ranks. Barrel's was Wesker, and Regal's was Nakata."

She was soon back onto focusing on Ruth. "Nyu?"

"I'm guessing you want to know what happened still?"

She nodded.

He gave a long sigh, looking away from the photo to the mess of robot toys. "Well. She and I were…special. You know that whole 'Super Child' thing we discussed in the labs? She and I were a part of that project. Ruth, suffered severely later on in her life after it. Four years after it to be precise. She was ten when things went wrong. Her condition destabilised. Gramps and Thomas Light tried to help her but…" His hands clenched up.

"They failed. They let her die suffering. They didn't tell us until they returned home two weeks later. Yuriko lost her shit. I recall her shouting at them and telling them they should've let 'her' die, it's not 'her' anymore and never thought about her feelings. I never did understand what she meant by that but now, now I do. Barrel was trying to cope with what he had lost a year before but Ruth's death pretty much made it the last time we saw him. Regal had to deal with trying to comfort me but, well, he wasn't very good at it. I think he knew about what happened to Ruth and it made him less supportive of the loss I felt because to him, she wasn't dead."

Nyu motioned with her hands near her head, as it trying to convey the position of where Ruth antennas were to him. He looked over and noticed before focusing on the ground again. "Yeah. Same person Nyu. At least in name only. She's based off what Ruth appeared as and has her name, but nothing else. She doesn't know who she was. Better that way I suppose for gramps and Thomas. Don't need a reminder of a mistake telling them what it felt like dying under their care."

A screeching sound was suddenly heard echoing in the corridor outside the room, as if something metal certainly met with something else that was metal and was trying to rub past it, scraping along the way.

Before long after it had alerted Nyu and Dr Richard, it came to a stop. Then Richard's com-link went off.

It was Keira. "Sooo…I increased the power to the rings and it kinda damaged the project a little bit? We may have a small setback."

"How small Keira?"

"Couple of days, could be a week depending on how many grip points of the outer ring got twisted into an unusable state."

"Keira those need to be crafted by hand."

"I know I know! I didn't expect this to happen! It seemed fine until the inner ring increased in speed!"

He put the com-link down and looked at Nyu. "So, your concern earlier was justified…let's head back and help her sort the mess out." He got up, placing the picture on the bed before heading out the room, with Nyu following him.

* * *

Chad and Ruth were sitting in the main room. Both discussing the hologram room after their little run around.

Which turned out to be a two hour venture for them. Ruth seemed to enjoy it at least whereas Chad got frustrated trying to find a way out of the place. He forgot the computer can just shut off the hologram simulation at any time he asks. Instead he was ducking and diving through the place to find the way he came in…he also didn't think to ask Ruth who know exactly where it was.

They came here with a few bottles of drink. Ruth with lemonade and him with Dr Pepper. They had noticed the gathering of others for the last few minutes. Dr Wily, Dr Light, Dr Hikari, Dr Regal and Laserman were awaiting round another spot of the main room. Sitting at one other table was Lu Bu and Diao Chan, seemingly minding their own business.

Then the reason for the docs being in the room became apparent, as Sabek and Blue teleported in. Blue was carrying a large blue duffle bag filled with items from his apartment, and as he told the docs, the only things that mattered to him. He sold what remained and returned the apartment to the council of Station Square.

Sabek had decided to keep his house on Mobius and had brought a backpack and a few rucksacks being carried by hand filled with items, books and objects he felt might be needed. He looked like he was struggling to carry it all and the moment he arrived, he placed the rucksacks down, looking at his red marked and squeezing them to get the numbing sensation out. "Well, we're finally here."

The docs made their way over. Whilst They greeted Sabek quite warmly…Blue, well, Wily's family greeted him and he quickly got that over with before he focused on Thomas, who was watching him carefully and Yuichiro, who gave him a small hug, looking relieved to see he was okay. "Blue, it's been a while. Your mother and brothers were worried about where you went."

"Mom knew I left. I doubt Hub cared that much, we didn't get along. Lan…I can't wait to see him again. Did you worry about me?"

Dr Hikari soon let go of him, stepping back. "We all did. Honestly we did. Your mother was still upset regardless of knowing you planned to go. I, I knew you'd be fine. You've been given abilites which would help you in looking after yourself."

"…" Blue soon focused on Thomas. "Grandfather. How's my robot uncles and sister?"

"They're Fine. They'll be here to greet you soon. Blues still won't fix his energy core. Rock and Roll still handle things for me and Auto is keeping the house tidy in ACDC."

"About as useful as he gets." Blue looked past them and spotted Chad and Ruth, as well as Lu Bu and Diao Chan. "And these people are…?"

Dr Light waved his hand dismissively. "Other folks of the base, you'll get to know them."

Sabek smiled, knowing one of the faces. "Oh that one there is Chad! You know the one Elie isn't happy with?" He pointed to the lad...which Chad in his mind was currently wishing he didn't after what he just said about Elie.

"Oh." Blue moved past the docs and made his way over to Chad and Ruth, with Sabek following. Laserman watched them, whilst Dr Regal and Dr Hikari got the luggage sorted by teleporting it to their assigned rooms. "So you're Chad huh?"

"Yesss?"

Blue put his hand out to him...his face didn't show he was happy, nor angry, just, neutral. "It's a pleasure. Elie said some, rather negative things about you over the time I've known her."

Chad got up and shook his hand. "Yeah, I can't blame her. Anna and I did leave on a sour note on Mobius, and my recent visit only made it worse."

"And your dark self didn't help much. Attacking her at her doorstep."

"I…didn't hear about that." Chad looked over to Dr Wily.

"Don't look at me. Samus and Jak said about an attack but they didn't they what. They just mentioned that Blue here, and I quote, 'kick the fucker's ass so hard he'll be paralyzed for several months.'." He said in his defence. "Speaking of Elie. Why isn't she present?"

Blue turned to him and the others. "Elie is still packing up the last pieces in her house. The rest has been teleported over to Gaia X as per your suggestion. She's wanting to reminiscence on things before she finally leaves Mobius."

"I see…"

Blue turned back to Chad, to notice Ruth now standing and wanting to shake his hand. "Hi."

"Uh, hi." He did so, looking at her with a quizzical look. "Aren't you Maylu's Navi?"

"Maylu? One of the members of the base here?" Ruth sounded a little surprised at that question. "No I'm not, why?"

"Sorry, the outfit and the hair made me think of Roll, that's all."

"Oh." Ruth looked at Chad. "Do I really look like her that much?"

Dr Light sighed. He should've recalled Blue had met Roll before in ACDC when she was a Net Bound Navi like Hub once was.

Chad nodded. "As I said in the hospital, she was…unique, like you."

Ruth focused back on Blue. "Well, I'm Ruth Bullen. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

…But hearing her name only made his puzzlement worse.

"Wait…but didn't you…" Blue turned back to the docs, then looked at Ruth again.

He knew Hub's fate. He now guessed that the Wily family done the same. "I see now. It's a pleasure to meet you again, Ruth."

"Again?"

"…" Blue noticed Dr Light shaking his head, as if knowing the question Blue had in his mind. "I mean-sorry. Thinking of Roll. Used to be a good friend of mine."

Ruth was getting a little concerned now with this constant parallel business with her looks to Roll. "Chad, am I really like her? What happened to Roll?"

All eyes were on him now.

The docs, Laserman, Blue Sabek and Ruth. Everyone waited on him to answer that.

Chad didn't know how. He just stared at Ruth, trying to think of something…then it hit him.

Say the truth.

"Ruth…Roll, Roll died in the hospital before you were created." His mouth seemed to dry out on thinking about it, about Roll again, about Unicron…Anna. "She was, fatally damaged by Richard. She never recovered. She was essentially killed by him, like Anna was."

"Fatal? For a Navi?"

Dr Wily spoke up. "Ruth, Roll suffered a catastrophic brain failure. Her programs no longer functioned. She was dead within. She had to be shut off."

"Why, why do I look like her so much?"

"…" Chad couldn't see a way around that question without it going to the only answer left in his mind. "You're…You're her replacement."

"…I'm a replica of a previous Navi."

"Ruth you're still unique. I'm not—I mean I, you just look like—"

"Her? That's it?"

"Yeah. That's it."

Ruth…seemed to smile at that. "That's okay then. Navi's can be copies of others in appearance. But I have my own programming and my own life. You don't have to hide that from me."

Chad was, nothing short of surprised at that answer. "You, don't mind?"

Even the docs seemed a little surprised.

"Of course not. I'm programmed and created as Ruth Bullen. I'm still a unique as the previous was terminated. I'm still the only type of this Navi form."

Chad just didn't know what to say now. The docs were fine with this answer, so was Blue. Laserman was still watching though, as was Sabek.

"Do you, want to talk elsewhere for a little bit? About this?" Ruth asked the mobian lad. She could tell something wasn't right with him on this matter.

"Yes…yeah please." Chad got up and walked out of the main room, with Ruth following.

"Listen I'm going to follow them, I need to have a word with Chad. I'll give him a few minutes with that Ruth girl at first of course." Sabek looked to Wily and Light, who were fine with it as he slowly walked after Chad and Ruth.

Blue went back to the others. "Well…now I see what happened to that little girl then. I take it she actually was—"

"Roll? Yes." Regal flatly answered. "It wasn't an easy decision to give her away to Maylu back then, but the girl needed a Navi to help her and Zero pointed out it was either we cling onto her and have my son suffer more so or let them get on with their lives."

Dr Wily heard his com-link trigger and answered it, whilst Blue turned to Thomas and Yuichiro. "Well, it's time I settled myself in my room."

"I'll take you there." Dr Hikari started to lead the way, when he noticed Blue hadn't moved…and nor had Thomas, both staring at eachother.

"Whatever it is you want to get off your chest, I want you to now." Dr Light told him.

"Both you and Albert see us as subjects. Ruth is proof of that. Richard got changed as well. I thought it would stick just to our family but it's clear no one is any better then the other."

"Don't mistake what happened to you and Hub as what happened with them. You needed help to recover from the poisoning. You volunteered for the upgrades after. Hub couldn't survive. Lan is still stable thanks to my efforts."

"…How much longer will it last? How much longer can the injections make him live for?"

Thomas didn't answer, he just gave a deep sigh, closing his eyes for a second before he instead said "I know you'll never trust me. You are like your uncle, Blues." then turned away, heading to the labs.

"—Alright Cao Cao, I'll get the teleportation ready for you and your two allies. I don't have rooms ready for them though…They'll just have to bring their own bits over time." Dr Wily shut off his com-link before noticing Thomas was missing, and noticing Blue leaving with Yuichiro. "Well. I suppose we better get back to work. Regal I'll be heading to my room to review the database after teleporting Cao Cao in. You handle the computer updates since Keira isn't around."

"Got it. Laserman?" Dr Wily headed to the labs, whilst Regal and Laserman went off to the hospital.

Lu Bu had watched with Diao Chan as a good ten minutes after, out of the labs came Cao Cao, with his nephew Cao Xiu, a warrior of the Wei Kingdom that recently wished to follow his uncle off world after the events that transpired on his homeworld, and to his right was someone Lu Bu didn't expect…Chen Gong.

"Chen Gong, I must head off and speak to Sima Yi about his sons with Cao Xiu here. I'll leave you be to find your room, you recall what Wily said yes?"

Chen Gong bowed a little. "Of course Cao Cao. I shall make my way there shortly. It's good to finally be welcome into the Hero Base. I only wished you invited me sooner."

"Sima Yi was all I needed for this place in order to plan anything out, but now as things are changing, I believe your talents will be useful to us here. You have a way with words and thinking. I will go through the details of where the food hall is and everything else shortly."

Cao Cao left the main room along with Cao Xiu, leaving Chen Gong to look over to Lu Bu, who stood up and made his way over to the man. Diao Chan seemed to take this as a sign to excuse herself, leaving them to talk as Chen Gong gave a small bow. "It's been quite some time, hasn't it master Lu Bu?"

"What are you doing here?" Lu Bu looked a little annoyed.

"I'm here to check on you. Lu Lingqi mentioned that you've been acting odd for some time and Cao Cao of course finally gave me a chance to leave that world for good. I enjoy it don't get me wrong, but it can be dull to sit around when I'm supposed to be in places and not allowed to go back to the god realm."

"…How is my daughter?"

"Still being a deity, still doing her duties. She said about eventually coming this way as well you know. I think she intends to see this next bloodline of Primus like I do. His already sparked interest with the defeat of Unicron. You probably don't notice the talk going around the realm at the moment."

Lu Bu scoffed at that. "His hardly worth anything. The higher deities will have their way with him with no further complications."

"I think you might be wrong there master Lu Bu. I think this boy presents us with a unique opportunity. One I know you've been waiting for since last time we tried."

"What opportunity would that be?"

"To defy the game."

Lu Bu stiffened up a little. "We cannot defy the game. No matter what, they decide the action mortals must take. It is within our command to follow the game and make sure it is concluded. Trying to turn against it is useless."

"And look where it led Primus." Chen Gong waved his hand dismissively. "They discarded him. All because of the item they lured him to on Diamas' world. We were caught up in that…we lost Primus despite it all. I never forgot the humiliation Beerus, Fate and Zuo Ci put us through."

The decisive battle. The three forts. He knew where Chen Gong was going with this when Primus told Lu Bu to go and rescue Maximus. The humiliation conga he went through…

"We fought to Maximus only to find it was a feint attack. We rushed to Taraqin to try and save Thor and Odin but the surprise attack killed them and that place was ablaze. Then we noticed Sepulchre was overrun, we got back there in time to see—"

"ENOUGH!" Lu Bu turned away from Chen Gong. "Speak of it no more!"

But it was already there in his mind. He recalled the moment he and 'Gongtai' back then were struggling to pull through the flames of Taraqin. He had seen the bodies of Odin and Thor, decapitated and hacked apart, as if the enemy made sure they could never come back. He remembered turning to Gongtai in desperation and yelling _"Gongtai! You're my strategist! Do something about this!"_

" _We clearly need to fall back Master Feng Xian! Taraqin is lost! Maximus is being surrounded! Sepulchre could be in danger also! We must save our main base and Primus at all costs now! Oh for the three fort formation to collapse like this! If only you both listened to me! It's going to be a much greater uphill struggle to fight back!"_

They had rushed back…but Lu Bu saw it. He saw the fall of Primus. Their army was on the verge of a total wipeout as soon as it was noticed that the greatest hero of their time was slain. Sepulchre was abandoned. Lu Lingqi was rescued by her father after receiving several wounds, as was Lady Sable, who later became named Diao Chan.

The only place left for them was Maximus. They got there only to find it ablaze also after being besieged. Arthas and Jaina were dead. They gathered any survivors they could and with Lu Bu leading a full blown charge, paved a way out of the siege…the enemy though, did not pursue.

And Lu Bu knew why. Beerus deemed the death of Primus and the loss of this battle humiliation enough for Lu Bu. A punishment fitting for a warrior who deemed himself unbeatable back then…to be beaten.

"…We lost it all that day. They enjoyed it whilst we all suffered. You know Zuo Ci is setting it up again…" Chen Gong then looked like he caught onto something. "Is that why you're keeping your distance from the boy? Because you know it's going to go that route?"

"This game will include the boy going up against some of the higher ranking deities. If they do not kill him, Zuo Ci will no doubt complete the task."

"Then why do we not sow the seeds of doubt then? The boy only needs to know Zuo Ci's history and that alone will make him reconsider his partnership with him. Ally with the Primus blood, and we can begin to show him what is to come."

"…"

Chen Gong grinned a little. "That new pink haired girl has a big connection to Zuo Ci's actions, and so has several of those close to the boy. The more we uncover and show the Primus boy what Zuo Ci has committed, the more we can ready the decisive blow."

"And how would a lowly summon like you know of these so-called connections to Zuo Ci?" Lu Bu glanced at him.

"You know I enjoy rubbing my elbows with the deities of the realm when I'm given permission to enter. Lu Lingqi often lets me visit that place…and I overhear a lot of interesting rumours. Slur and Palutena are quite the talkers. Zuo Ci murdered a lot of people just to reach that pink haired girl. The fact all this-" motioning to the main room "—was set up to lure the boy into this doomed fate. We can work this out. Not to mention…I heard that Blind Io himself has noticed something alarming and wants to deal with it."

"Hm?"

"…Primus is alive."

* * *

Chad was sitting on his bed.

Ruth was beside him, her hands on her lap, looking at him with concern.

He didn't know where to start. He had his hands close to his face, clasp together and leaning forward a little, looking ahead.

The rain was still visible outside the window in his room, the specks of water splashing against it.

It took him a few minutes before finally finding the words. He was grateful Ruth was being patience with him. "How…why are you comfortable, knowing you replaced someone?"

"Because I am not Roll. I am Ruth Bullen."

"I mean, Ruth you are…" He paused for a moment, sitting back and lowering his hands, glancing at her. He didn't want to say about the fact she was literally in the body of Roll. "You're a copy of her form, her shape. Everyone here remembers her and you're, in her shoes per say."

"I guess you can see it like that, but I don't. I'm just me. I have none of her memories, her feelings and connections to others."

"But, but you've bonded with me quickly. You care about me."

"Because you do to me…I, how long have you been active for?"

"Active?" Chad was briefly puzzled by that.

"You're a Navi remember."

"Ruth I'm not the same. I'm a Humanoid Navi. I'm more flesh and blood then Navi." Chad explained.

"Well okay…I'm new. When a Navi comes to life, it seeks connections, a purpose in life and checks it's programming and pre-created missions. Medi told me hers is to support and sustain all life under her care. She is also programmed to avoid certain feelings of guilt and loss when a being labelled to her as 'patient' regardless of other values, dies. I looked for mine and it's set to just…be friendly to others around me. I have no other parameters besides not letting anyone touch the golden plug."

"Golden…?"

Ruth stood up, showing her backside and Chad saw it. "Oh, that. Why is that?"

She shrugged before sitting back down. "No idea. But I have to accept it. It is what I am. But from those parameters, I am allowed to create my own. I can form relationships with those who live around me and decide what I would do for them and their worth. Over time I'll gain goals in life, hobbies, find my place in the universe so to speak. Maybe then I'll reflect on this and feel a little different to it. Maybe. But right now I don't know Roll. I don't know if she had the same parameters as me."

"Well…she was always nice to folks around here, and boy if anyone went near that plug…Hub once pressed it and I never saw Roll lash out so quickly as she did that moment. He had a helluva black eye for a couple of days, refusing recovery chips to remind himself of the lesson."

Ruth seemed to look to the bed for a moment, before looking at Chad again as he now was fully focused on her. "…What was she to you?"

"Roll?" Chad stared at Ruth, he recalled Roll in the Cryo room, the rage he felt as Richard destroyed her memories, now trying to avoid eye contact with the Navi before him as he answered the question. "She was a dear friend of mine. We were close due to her being my first friend when I got here. She was, well, my guardian like I am now to…you…" Chad trailed off on that.

Ruth slowly reached out and held onto one of Chad's hands with her own, before making sure their physical connection was placed between them on the bed. "I'm sure she's happy you're caring for me like you would her. I don't want you to distance yourself from me over this. We'll create our own friendship. I'll be my own person. Then you'll be able to separate me from Roll."

Chad felt his chest tense up. He eyesight was beginning to blur as he noticed tears were forming. He pulled his hand away from Ruth, rubbing one of his eyes a little with it. "Sorry, I'm just thinking back to, to things."

"Take your time. I'll be here." She gave him a comforting smile.

Boy that smile and her saying that suddenly pulled him back in time. The first few weeks he was here, one evening he was sitting on his bed with Roll beside him. He was concerned back then. _"Roll. Look. What if, I just keep screwing things up? I keep bumping into folk, can't say sentences without panicking I said something wrong and I swear to Blind Io Anna is regretting letting me come with her!"_

 _Roll patted him on the shoulder. "Hey come on. You're fine. I mean yeah, you do ram into people but that's because you keep trying to treat this place like Mobius. Now you rammed into Optimus Prime you might learn to slow down a little to avoid further concussions. You're talking fine too. I've asked a few people how they felt about you and it's all good. Charlie seems to think you're fitting in great, and I agree. As for Anna, well…"_

 _Roll moved a little closer. "I think she enjoys seeing you struggle to cope personally."_

" _What? Why?"_

" _Because you're cute when you're frustrated and especially flustered."_

" _I'm not! I'm trying to handle socialising with folk! How can I—"_

 _She gave him a quick peck on the cheek._

 _That alone made him quickly get off the bed, going red and looking flustered. "Wh-what the hell Roll!? What are you doing!?"_

 _She was giggling at him, which made him worse. "What!? What did I do now!?"_

" _Nothing. Honest. You're just, being cute. Have you seen how red you've gotten? Anna seems to especially enjoy you looking like that around her!"_

 _Chad couldn't go anymore red. He just turned away from her trying to get his mind straight. "Goddamnit I just wanted a sensible conversation with you Roll!"_

 _She was smiling as she got up from the bed. "Don't worry about it Chad." She went over to him to get into his view as he tried to look away from her. "We're friends. Sensible conversations don't always happen. Wanna grab a bite to eat? The food hall should be open."_

 _He finally looked at her, glaring a little. "You won't do that again, right?"_

" _I can only but try not to. But if it triggers you that much, well…"_

" _Don't you dare."_

Chad snapped back to the present, looking to the ground, away from Ruth… "Ruth, I'll see you tomorrow okay? I need time alone."

Ruth nodded, getting up and heading to the door. As she opened it she spoke to him. "We're friends Chad. I'm always here if you want to say anything to me."

With that, she left. As she closed the door she suddenly noticed Sabek leaning on the wall beside the room. "Oh!"

"How is he?" Sabek looked at her, a little worried himself.

"He's, struggling to cope I think. I might have to ask Medi to see him. She's programmed to consult others over deaths."

"Well, I was planning to discuss something important…but a day won't hurt. I'll do it tomorrow. Still, may I walk with you to my room?"

Ruth agreed to it. "Of course. Why though?"

"Just, for you to tell me what you make of Chad. Of your encounters with him. There's something troubling me about him…"

* * *

The night had arrived for those in the Wily Fortress.

And boy were the repairs slow. Keira had done some damage alright. It had led to them dismantling the outer ring piece by piece in order to get to the connections between the two rings to repair what they could and plan the replacing of those they couldn't.

It was just Nyu, Keira and Dr Richard at this point. The robot masters had began to lock down the Wily Fortress for the night for them before they had to teleport home. Nyu was especially evident of the time as she was frequently yawning whilst helping Keira dismantling one segment of the outer ring on the floor.

"Alright Nyu, if you head up the scaffolding and grab the tools and bring them back down, we'll start calling it a night." Keira suggested, as she finally acknowledged that Nyu was almost falling asleep beside her whilst Dr Richard was busy updating his datapad with the list of items they'll need so far.

"Nyu nyu." Nyu responded with drowsily before making her way over to the scaffolding and climbing the steel ladder.

As she was gathering up the tools and devices they had used today though…

Keira heard a loud, brief creaking sound. It was clear enough to her whilst Dr Richard ignored it. "What the?" She quickly looked over to where the sound came from, the noticed that, above Nyu, one of the plates of metal of the outer ring they had yet to take down was out of place, creaking a little more as it was clearly about to break off. "NYU! GET AWAY FROM THERE NOW!"

Dr Richard had heard that, his head darting up from the datapad to look over at Nyu and noticing the metal now. He quickly triggered his Navi form and used the jets on it to fly towards Nyu whilst she looked over to Keira and Dr Richard fast approaching for a moment, before quickly looking up in time to notice the metal piece snap off the bolts that must've been weakened during the test. She only had enough time to protect herself by merely covering her head with her arms.

She felt something from the side smack into her before she was flung off the scaffolding. She yelled as she fell and smacked into the ground rather hard, with her head taking a bit of the blow leaving her in pain and dazed as she had heard in that time something smashed into the scaffolding…and lots of wood breaking and metal bending.

"NYU!" Keira was heard yelling out to her before rushing over and pulling her up, dragging her away. "Come on!"

Nyu slowly opened her eyes, feeling her feet and legs being dragged on the cold ground, glancing back and spotting the scaffolding giving way, breaking apart and coming down…along with Dr Richard within it, and the metal slab on top of him. She tried to push Keira away to go back for him.

Keira refused to have any of it as they got away from the device. "Leave him for the moment! We're flesh and blood! He is a Navi and he can be easily fixed compared to us!"

Soon the scaffolding had fallen apart, a small wave of dust surrounded the machine, then there was a moment of silence.

They couldn't see Dr Richard.

Soon several of the robot masters arrived at the scene, Gutsman, Fireman, Quickman, Oilman, Elecman and Hardman. "What the heck is going on in here!?" Fireman had to ask the two ladies.

"Nevermind! We need you guys to help! Dr Richard is trapped in the scaffolding!" Keira quickly ordered as she went over to where the Navi was, with the Robots and Nyu following.

"What happened? Did the machine fail something again?" Gutsman looked to Keira as they started to move the damaged metal poles, planks of wood and steel fragments of a ladder, soon finding the large metal slab, and Dr Richard trapped beneath it.

"The bolts must've been unable to carry the weight after the earlier cock up!" The Dumauris answered as the robot masters worked together to move the slab and throw it aside.

The second the metal was moved Nyu bent down to the doctor to check on him. "Nyu!"

"Did…anybody get the number of that donkey cart?" Richard groaned out as the robot masters then focused on getting all the debris out of the way and disposed of.

Nyu looked a little relieved as Keira joined her. "Richard? You alright?"

"Nope. According to my quick system update, my spine is broken, my armor is indented in all kinds of places, my jets no longer function due to critical damage and I'm so glad that this armor could handle metal pressing against it as I dropped, or I might've suffered some impalements too…So, how are you?"

Nyu looked worried at him, before she looked over to the small laptop and rushed over to it. Keira meanwhile looked at him carefully, showing a fair bit of concern on his condition. "We need to get you to a repair area. Recovery chips won't restore this level of damage."

"Ah Goddamnit. That's gonna take a few days. Kinda wanted to just get back to work since we've had that setback."

"Yeah…about that. I'm still Sorry."

"Not your fault. Should've taken Nyu's concerns more seriously on that account. It's my bad too ya know…fuck my sensory system is in full swing, the pain is QUICKLY going into high gear, might have to turn it off. Hate doing it as I feel less human for it but…"

"Nyu!"

"What's she found?" Richard asked as the girl came back.

In one hand she had a cable that was once the connecter between the laptop and the large computer, and in the other hand one the small laptop. She bent down and placed the laptop aside for the moment, before looking at one end of the cable…and was yanking at it, eventually pulling off the connection point, leaving the inner wires exposed now.

Keira just stared. "…I don't know what she's doing? Does she know about Navi's?"

Nyu used the other end of the cable to plug into the laptop, which was already turned on, and the exposed wire end…she grabbed a part of his black navi clothing that was beneath his armor, a part that was exposed in the neck area between the armor and helmet, and ripped it open, before placing the wiring on the skin of Richard's neck and pushing it in. "Ow ow! I can feel that!"

"Nyu!" She answered with determination, before checking and noticing a few of the copper ends had pieced the skin successfully, causing a little blood to leak and going back to the laptop, looking at the wave of fragmented data it was getting. Keira joined the pink haired girl and soon realized something. "Wait…can you, read this?"

"Nyu?" Nyu looked at Keira for a moment, before nodding and focusing back, as if she only just figured out herself that she can read it now. She was staring at the screen, which was showing the connection was having trouble gathering data to what it was linked with. "Nyu nyu!" She pointed to the wire end in Richard.

"…Huh, guess that bump on the head from the fall put something back in place. Okay I'm going to take a guess here on what you want Nyu and…" Keira moved closer to Richard and was pushing the wire in further.

"OW! OW! Hello!? Can someone tell me what's happening?!" Richard was clearly not happy. It wasn't shocking him due to being a Navi, he could handle this level of electric surging into him but he still wasn't impressed about being jabbed with no information.

Nyu soon was typing away on the laptop which made Keira stop and go back over to the girl. The robot masters had noticed what was going but chose to focus on their work to avoid getting mixed up in it.

The thing was whatever Nyu was trying to type. She couldn't. It was all a jumbled mess and the computer wasn't having any of it, making her frustrated. Keira had to stop her from throwing the Laptop aside as their frustration reached its peak. "Hey Hey!" She grabbed it and slowly made Nyu let go. "It's okay. I'll do it is your trying to do. Just point it out."

Nyu calmed herself, before pointing at one part, then at another of Richard's body on the screen.

Keira soon guessed what Nyu was trying. "…I don't know if that's a good idea but hey, give it go."

"Nyu?" Nyu frowned a little at her.

Keira soon typed up the command line Nyu was trying to use and entered it, making Dr Rich feel a tingling sensation down his back. "Well I can't think of anything better as the laptop lacks a repair function but still, copying and pasting a lower section of the spine over the damaged bit…"

"SHE DID WHAT!?" Dr Richard tried to move, but the pain from his back was gone, replaced by the fact he was now super rigid, able to move his legs and arms but his back was locked in place. "Why the hell did she suggest that!? I'm not a machine Goddamnit! Keira you know Navi's better!"

"She's trying to help Richard! By doing so at least you can move the rest of your body and the repair program can sort out the botched job better then an empty gap where your shattered segment was! It's shaved off a day of fixing!" Keira walked over to him, looking annoyed.

"I…well…you…"

"At least she's showing her intelligence by trying to adapt what she knows to you. I think it's her way of trying to thank you for saving her from being in your position."

Richard had to take his time, but he managed to shift himself so he could look over at Nyu, who was giving him a thumbs up. "…Look can someone just teleport us to the base and get this over with?"

* * *

Chad managed to curl up in his bed and get some sleep. He felt like he needed it again.

He couldn't stop his mind wandering back to the days before Darkmega. He began to take notice of things that he didn't before. Roll was right. People did seem to warm to him easily, Anna did keep enjoying his actions when he got all worked up…why didn't he notice Anna liking him sooner? Why the hell did it take until Unicron for him to acknowledge what Roll had picked up on? Maybe he would've had more time, maybe things might've been different.

He drifted off to sleep, the dreams coming and going in glances and flashes in his head.

Until the clocks went past midnight.

Chad woke up.

At least, he opened his eyes.

…He noticed right away he wasn't in his room. At least, not the Earth X one.

He was in the Zebes base, the light on the ceiling dimmed a little as it was night time. He sat up, noticing he was fully dressed, Blade of Darkness at his side…and something really didn't feel right besides the fact he knows full well this place should be in ruins right now. He looked to his alarm clock on his bedside drawer he had…10:20, but instead of am or pm beside the numbers, it was MU.

He couldn't make sense of it. He decided to get on the com-link as he got off the bed. "Dr Wily? Dr Light?"

There was static…vague voices mixed in with it. He was sure he could recognize some of them. "Darkmega? Medi? Ruth?...Kei? Hello?" Bit he couldn't understand whatever they were saying.

Then, there was a whining sound, which slowly turned into ghostly wailing, mixed with a howling wind echoing down a long, large metal pipe. It was making the back of his head itch, badly. He scratched it. A lot, putting the com-link down, and soon realizing the sound hadn't gone away.

"W-where the hell is it…?" He was getting worried real fast now. He moved towards his door and opened it to leave the room and get some help.

To find the sound and the itchiness at it's worst, as he came face to face with Roll, her clothing black in the places it should be, but the pink was replaced with a dull grey, her hair and antennas a pure white, her bow black, her crest gone leaving a gaping black blooded hole in her chest…her eyes and mouth nothing but very distorted and out of proportion voids. Around her was a faint, barely visible haunting mist.

It made him catapult backwards, landing on his bed and quickly moving over to the other side of it as this 'Roll', he was sure, was focused on him. "WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL!?"

It seemed to slowly drift backwards, levitating off the ground, motioning him with it's hand to follow, before slowly moving away to the right of his door, heading down the corridor as the noise and the itchiness getting slowly less and less for Chad who quickly dashed to the doorway and looked out watching her go eventually around the side and out of sight, the sound still audible.

But he had noticed something. Just barely visible at the back of her head and helmet, her hair hiding most of it from him was a hole. He quickly figured out that was where he was itchy from.

"Chad, get a hold of yourself. Pinch your skin. Get out of the dream." He looked to his hands and used his left one to pinch the top of his right.

It done nothing for him.

"Okay, not working, it's not working!"

He stopped talking as he heard a faint tapping sound, coming from the other direction of the corridor…if he recalled correctly, that route led to the main room of this base. The lights in the corridor in that direction were bright, whilst the ones Roll…or whatever it was went, were dim and dying.

He decided that the less spooky route was the correct option and headed down towards the main room. "If I recall it's five corridors out…" The tapping was heard again, like someone using a small bit of metal to tap against glass.

As he made his way, he noticed each and every one of the bedrooms had their doors open…no one was here, not a soul was encountered as he entered the next corridor, and then another.

The tapping was slowly getting louder and louder…and as he got to two corridors between him and the main room…the scene in this corridor was vastly different.

Zerg veins, hundreds of them, latched onto the walls, on the lights causing them to flicker and struggle to function, the doors of the bedrooms forced open by them and covered up. Blood dribbling from the ceiling to the floor, causing puddles to form, a mess of the veins blocking his way through.

He slowly approached the flesh which was clearly pulsating and pulled it apart to proceed on…it caused spurts of blood to escape the veins, washing Chad's hands in it. "Ah for fucks sake." Chad cursed as he continued to rip and push them aside to get through the corridor. "Just a dream Chad, you know it's a dream, logic is telling you this."

Halfway into the corridor, he could see the next one in the same state. He knew this was gonna be nasty to get through. He was trying to avoid thinking about where all these veins could grow from, and the sheer blood they carried, quickly pushing it to the back of his head repeating to himself "It's dream man. It's all a dream. It's a dream man."

But he then stopped after pulling another group of veins apart, washing his clothing in the blood.

That wailing sound was coming back, the itchiness was rapidly returning.

Chad didn't want to look back. He didn't want to see. But he still did.

She had arrived at the end of the corridor, floating there with her head looking down at the ground, her arms limp. The mist was thicker now to the point the lights from the last corridor were not visible behind it…before he saw her face slowly came up looking at him, and her arms coming forward, her hands reaching out as the wailing got real loud in his ears real quick it was almost deafening.

It was triggering all of his panic buttons. "NEVER LOOK BACK! NEVER EVER!"

He was tearing through the veins knowing she was beginning to approach, the blood washing his face, hair, eyes. He didn't care though. He had to get away from her no matter what. His vision was blurred and his eyes were burning but he didn't dare stop. He knew he got to the next corridor and just grabbed whatever he could in front of him in his way and rip it apart to push on.

He got to the main room. In the middle of it was a large pile of bodies, disfigured and mutilated, the veins and blood were coming out of them, the place flooded in red. The computers were destroyed and the veins here had gotten up the walls and were dangling from the ceiling, though nowhere as jumbled together like in the corridors.

Chad knew he was out of the corridor, rubbing his eyes with his arm trying to see a little better as he looked to the bodies. He couldn't make out most of them but some…yes, yes he could.

Darkmega's arm was visible.

Medi's head was mixed in the pile.

Kei Yuki's disembowelled body.

There was also a girl and a small child on top of the pile. The girl had long brown hair with two green and pink butterfly clips in it, and the child wore a yellow outfit with navi clothing and a helmet with two white phrygian cap ends on it. Their bodies were torn open, their guts splashed out over the other bodies…and Chad was sure they were twitching before his brain registered the fact the wailing was still present quickly looking behind him.

Roll was quickly closing in.

He then heard in the midst of the wailing, the sound of tapping again, coming from the hospital room close by which was clear of veins and brightly lit up inside from what he could see.

The choice was clear here. He dashed through the blood, running as quick as he can to the hospital door, yanking it open and diving inside, slamming it shut behind him and leaning against it to vaguely hope it would stop that haunting figure coming in.

He then realized the hospital was not lit up now. The computer was humming, the screen flickering, but the lights were off…bar the glowing green light just barely visible coming from a large, humanoid sized glass cylinder that was close to the computer, covered in a black sheet besides the very bottom which allowed the light of it out.

The wailing slowly seem to fade out, as did the itchiness once again. He was relieved as he slowly moved himself to the glass of the hospital door to look outside.

To find Roll's face looking in at him, making him yell again and quickly move back, watching intensely as it continued to look in.

Before he heard what sounded like beeps of morse code, rapid beeping and whispering of a female voice. He couldn't understand anything but the last two words.

"- _Kill you."_

Then the face vanished from beyond the glass…nothing but pitch black was now present there.

He slowly made his way back to the door and looked out the glass to make sure, but there was nothing there now…and the door would not open as he tried to pull it.

The tapping came again, and now he knew the source of it.

Chad looked to the glass cylinder covered up.

He walked over, grabbing the black sheet covering it…and pulled it off.

He was expecting something to jump at him, but inside the cylinder that still confused him regardless, was himself. Out for the count in some, green glowing gel-like fluid, fully clothed. The only thing that was different was the fact he had a hole in his chest, over where his heart would be.

"…Well this dream Chad is clearly dead…" He looked away from the cylinder over to the computer, noticing on the flickering screen, there was a sentence typed up in the corner.

He ventured over and had a look at it.

 **TIME'S UP CHAD**

That made something trigger in his head.

Richard. They always met every seven days. The fear he had when he was in quarantine rushed back into him because he now realized.

It's now over seven days.

He looked back to the cylinder.

In time to see that Richard was now in there wide-awake staring straight at him, before the glass shattered and he lunged towards Chad, a complete nightmarish psychotic look on his face.

Chad woke up in his bed, drenched in sweat and breathing so rapidly his heart was slamming in his chest.

He quickly looked over to the time.

4:50 am.

He dived out of bed grabbing his clothes off the floor and getting dressed as fast as possible, dashing out of his room heading to the quarantine area.

He rushed in and headed right over to the computers and quickly got it to access the cameras to check on Richard.

"…No…"

He checked every camera, every visual feed there was into the isolated room...Because Richard wasn't there.

"Shit shit SHIT!" Chad deactivated the energy shields before unlocking the door, allowing the heavy slab of metal to slide away to one side within the walls.

He rushed into the room, his eyes looking to every spot he could. There was no sign of damage and no sign of an escape attempt. But he was gone.

Chad got on the com-link. "Dr W—"

Something smashed into him. A feeling of the air in front of him had suddenly moved and before he knew it something clasped over his mouth and jaw sending him flying out of the room and crashing into the wall near the exit. It lifted him off the ground and kept a firm hold over his face and in place against the wall despite his struggling. He couldn't call for help. His jaw was in pain, it felt like whoever had him could easily crush his lower head in right now.

As he look down, he could see the outline of who it was, just barely reflecting off the light of the room. Richard spoke to him as he turned visible. "You're late, Oswald." He spoke with a deeply menacing, hateful tone, his eyes glaring at Chad.

Chad couldn't reply of course, but the look of fear he was giving as he knew Richard had him seemed to be enough of a response for the Overmind hybrid to talk again.

"For the last three months we had a mutual agreement. Every, seven, days. You would come and check to see if I showed any signs of escaping. I was amused by your actions, so I went with it and agreed with you, without speaking, that if you went longer than seven days I could escape. Is that right?"

Chad knew Richard was right. That was the fear that lingered in his mind that made him come and check before. Why did he wait till now? Why didn't he keep to the routine?! Now he couldn't get help, couldn't reach his sword…

"It's been over seven days." His fingers started to dig into Chad's face. "I believe that means I'm allowed out now, doesn't it? What will you do? What can, you do?"

Chad tried to get angry. He tried to get his power flaring up. All that training he did against those fake holograms WILL amount to something! He raised his fist and took a swing at Richard…Who simply moved his head to the side to avoid it, then allowed Chad to strike at his arm a few times, showing that his grip wasn't getting any weaker.

"You don't have, what it takes, to beat me." Richard spoke as Chad kept striking again and again, a few times going for Richard's head who these times allowed the blows to hit…to show they were no sells. "You're yearning for a power you'll never see with the attitude you've taken about it."

Chad felt it. His cheeks, teeth and jaw were in agony, it felt like Richard could easily tear it all off in one swoop at this rate. A few tears from the pain escaped him as he continued to swing until he found himself exhausted, the lack of air getting to his body with his mouth clamped shut didn't help his position.

"Chad, you're struggling because of our agreement, but don't you understand what I was saying to you? I stayed because I was amused."

Chad stared down at Richard's face…and clicked on what he meant.

"This place can't ever really contain me. I know it inside out, being Dr Wily's grandson. And my brute power alone could tear these walls asunder, allowing me to gut you, your friends…especially the one you swore to protect. The one you refuse to fail again."

…Richard suddenly let Chad go, letting him slide down the wall to the ground on his backside, as the Zerg humanoid turned away and walked back into his isolation chamber, before firing a single Zerg vein out of his hand towards the computer, and as it attached it quickly gained access to the system for a moment before the vein seemed to snap off from Richard's hand, dissolve away, the metal door sliding back into place before being locked into position, and the energy barrier was restored.

Richard's voice came through the computer now via the audio feed of the cameras. "But this was a one-off slip up, wasn't it Chad? I'm sure you'll NEVER forget to check every seven days again, will you? Because next time, I will do what you fear most from me."

Chad very, very slowly got up from the ground, shaken from the ordeal. Eventually he started making his way to the computer.

"Now, get stronger, get more powerful, apply new equipment to hold me in place. Maybe one day you'll be strong enough to finally provide me amusement again like you did within Unicron. I'll see you in seven days."

Chad stood over the machine and looked at the monitor.

Richard was back in his cross legged sitting position, head down…as if nothing happened.

Chad's aching face and five red, fresh bruises on it said otherwise. He turned off the monitor and slowly made his way out, wishing, cursing himself to never ever forget again.

He found his entire body was shaking.

* * *

On Mobius, the sun was on the very edge of the horizon as it began to rise.

Elie was watching her telly. Tea in hand whilst sitting on the couch.

There was a human woman on the screen on the channel 'Mobotropolis news'. Next to the woman was an image of a murder screen on the streets of Station Square.

"Another murder has occurred last night. 28 year old mobian female Shivana was found by police after her friends found her in the alleyway close to the night club she often went to. The police confirmed that she has been killed like the others that have recently occurred with a distinct weapon slash across her neck. The police department has yet to explain why the increased level of murders is occurring. One of the departments research team suggested that the 4th known Bioraptor, or more commonly known as Lexnus brood, 'kohoutek angels' may have changed planetary course and may now be residing on Mobius. But many suggest that cannot be the case as no reports were raised on the calls of the species—"

Elie looked worried on hearing that. The murders have been occurring since Chad came to her world. Could something have followed him here?

That was all she needed to leave the planet on. As it goes to shit thanks to her dead sister's boyfriend bringing trouble. She looked over at the boxes stacked up in her living room. Everything was ready but herself. She wasn't sure about the telly nor the couch and dining table as well as chairs, but she assumed that was a no go to taking to storage.

As her mind drifted to what she had to leave behind, she heard a knock on her front door. She sighed before getting up off the couch and heading to it, answering the door to find Dr Wily standing there. She was quite surprised. "Oh. Hi."

"Elie. I wanted to come and check on you. Blue said yesterday you were gonna take another day before coming to the base. Do you mind if I—" He motioned to inside her house.

"Uh no of course not. Please do come in mister Wily." Elie stood aside as the old man entered. "Isn't it a little early to make house calls though? I thought you Hero Base folk don't get out much unless you're on missions."

"Well most of the folk keep to that but it never hurts to get out once in a while. I came this early because I had a feeling you would already be awake." He walked with his staff as he entered her living room, looking at the stacks of boxes and at the TV.

She closed the door and followed him. "Well…I guess leaving somewhere you lived your whole life can easily make you stay awake all night. Do you want a drink or…?"

Dr Wily turned to her, smiling a little. "I doubt you have much left out. Though I did notice you had a hot beverage made."

"Mobian Green Tea."

"That will do fine."

Soon, she turned the telly off. She was sitting on one end of her couch whilst Wily as at the other, having placed his staff on the arm of it and was holding his cup of tea, eyes closed.

She wasn't sure how to feel about a once criminal mastermind sitting in her living room that now was in command of the base she was going to live at thanks to her 'destiny', but tried to relax a little. "So…nice day on Earth X?"

"It's pleasant. Predicted Temperature is at 21 degrees Celsius and the weather is supposed to be cloudy but no further rainfall after yesterday. Wind will be keeping to 8 miles per hour." He answered as a matter of fact before taking a sip of his drink.

"…Is the weather different from Mobius? I mean, do you have any, unique, weather?"

"Most class M planets of the type 1 category are 95% the same in terms of weather. The only difference I know from Mobius and Earth X is that your auroras in the sky are more prone to rapid colour change over the course of each hour."

"Oh…that's interesting." She now had a sip of her drink, which was a little colder as she didn't make herself a new one.

"It's a fascinating lightshow. I've seen holo-vids of it but never bothered to venture north myself to see it." Dr Wily added.

"Couldn't you just teleport up there and watch it one night?"

"Perhaps I will. When I'm sure things will be settled in the base, I may even spend a night there to enjoy it fully."

"Well I'm sure you've seen better things across the galaxies."

"Every planet has it's treasures and uniqueness. Look too much at the big picture and you'll start to miss them."

There was silence as both had another drink…before Elie finally decided to ask him. "Mister Wily…Why are you here?"

"Please call me Doctor Wily…" He opened his eyes as he looked down at his cup. "And I want to apologise to you."

"For what?"

"For your loss."

Elie went quiet as Dr Wily looked at her, his monocle glinting a little. "We never brush off the deaths that occur in our base. Many of our members still mourn in their own ways with the losses we had recently. Annas hit a few of us hard."

She looked a little annoyed on hearing that as she remained focused on her cup. "Chad didn't seem that upset when he first came to my door…but when we talked later…"

Dr Wily gave a small huff, looking at a few of the boxes close by. "The boy has had it rough. Ever since two years ago his never really stopped. Things keep coming up for him due to his position—"

"As a Primus bloodline member. I'm fully aware."

"But the rest of us…we understand your loss entirely. Anna was a kind and confident girl in our ranks. When she first arrived she wanted to know where each person came from and what their worlds were like. We didn't have much for her to look at but once we got her on the networks she would frequently look at it every day untill Darkmega kicked off."

"Then everything turned to shit huh?"

"In a sense. Anna's greatest loss was Chad. He vanished for two years without a trace. He said it was a strange vortex he was pulled into and found himself on Earth V, two years on, without a hint that so much time had past him. Anna though didn't sit around waiting for him. As you were probably aware, Darkmega was trying to keep control of Earth X."

"Mmhm."

"Well she put herself on the frontline to deal with him. If anything came up that required us to work with the Galactic Federation to cripple Darkmega she was right there to go for the mission. No matter the risk she wanted to do it. Not just for Chad to hopefully find him, but also to protect the new worlds she had grown to enjoy."

Elie smiled a little. "Well, she did go into matters headfirst sometimes. Especially with Chad mixed in it."

"I recall one conversation I had with her on the planet Zebes. She was talking about home, Mobius. She was saying how she wanted to go back there one day to see if anything changed."

Elie glanced over at him. "Changed?"

"Oh she was vague with it, but I didn't push into what she was talking about. I was in the mood to just listen. But at one point she looked up to the stars and said about someone close to her heart, someone she wants to get back in contact with one day. She said the person was like her, confident, kind. She said this girl had a world on her shoulders, people relying on her. She then asked me something."

"…" Elie looked over to him.

"She asked me 'Wily, do you think, if this person is like me, one day she'll see the stars like I do and follow me up here to see them closer with me?'"

"…And what did you say?"

Dr Wily leaned back in the couch, and looked over to Elie, giving her a warm smile. "Of that I have absolutely no doubt."

Elie slowly placed her cup on the table…she felt her tears escaping again. She was trying to cover them with a smile. "Oh Anna. You knew my stance on it, yet…" She started to sob, then, she broke down.

Wily didn't move from where he was for a moment. His smile was gone, a look of sympathy was now on his face as he looked back to his drink and just listened to her for a while, before getting up off the couch, placing his own drink down, and headed into the hallway with his staff.

He looked up the stairs. He could picture Anna now heading down these stairs, smiling at him and asking him where Chad was today.

That always was her first question in the mornings. He always knew the answer too, that's what annoyed him the most. If she went to anyone else they'd have no idea. But he always had tabs on where Chad was…The boy was special.

She saw past his old actions and saw him as a friend. A majority of those in the base have grown to tolerate him due to the favours he does for him and his close friendship with Thomas Light. With her liking him as a friend, Chad followed suit, for which he was grateful.

"…Chad. I know there's something else. I know you're keeping something from us." He spoke to himself. "What really happened in Unicron?"

Chad, as the voice he knew, answered him behind him. "Well Wily maybe one day you'll find out."

Dr Wily quickly turned around.

Elie was covering her face as she cried, and only tried to stop when she heard something hit the floor hard in the hallway. "D-Dr Wily?" She rubbed her eyes as her vision was blurred for a moment thanks to the tears.

To find Angelus standing in the living room, wearing a black trench coat, dark red shirt, black trousers and shoes, smirking at her. Whilst she soon noticed Wily was on the ground in the hallway, unconscious. "Hello Elie. You and the old timer will be coming with me now. We have a date with destiny."


End file.
